Live at The Speakeasy Apollo Theatre as part of Melbourne Fringe 2024

Hilary Jean Watts embodies the musical legacy of Laura Nyro in her returning Melbourne performance, Stoney End: The Songs of Laura Nyro.

The songbook of this performance is taken from the soulful, vocally astonishing cult icon Laura Nyro and various other artists that influenced her sound from the 1960s and 70s.

Nyro’s music honours the defiant resilience of young women. Through her music the audience is taken on a journey of love and loss and the humbling reverence of what it is to live, to be defeated and then to rise again.

It is an expression of the greatest rebellion; to be your authentic self.

Laura Nyro’s music is mostly known by the famous voices that covered her songs -  Barbara Streisand, Blood Sweat and Tears, Three Dog Night and the 5th Dimension - but many do not realize her full contribution to contemporary music. 

We revisit the Nyro songs inspired by 1960’s girl groups “Wedding Bell Blues”, “Flim Flam Man” as well as her heartfelt and soulful covers of “Ooh Baby”, “Walk on By” and “Up on the Roof”, into her emotional complex songwriter, “Been on a Train”, “Tom Cat Goodbye” and many more.

Watts’ spellbinding performance paired with Nyro’s incredible discography, makes for a virtuosic and soulful theatrical experience.  Accompanied by Musical Director Jessica West and a four-piece band.

This musical event is an invitation to see deep collaboration with artist and muse, and the catharsis and imagination that unfolds and binds them.