The opening and closing numbers are the highlights of "Eli's Comin'," the new musical entertainment based on the work of 1960s songwriter-singer Laura Nyro at the Vineyard. The show opens with four female vocalists soulfully putting across "Stoned Soul Picnic," one of Nyro's biggest hits. It's not really about anything but having a good time. The singers do and so does the audience as they invite us to "surrey down" and partake of "sassafras and moonshine." The 90-minute all-sung revue concludes with a curtain-call rendition of "Wedding Bell Blues," another chart-topper cleverly staged by director Diane Paulus.
In between these two delights, creators Bruce Buschel and Paulus have imposed a convoluted storyline on Nyro's soft-pop tunes of self-discovery and the search for love. Emmie (Judy Kuhn), a new arrival to the big city, encounters three other women on the subway. The two younger ones (Mandy Gonzalez and Anika Noni Rose) are romantically involved with a mysterious dancing figure called the Captain (Wilson Jermaine Heredia from "Rent"), who appears to be a cross between a drug dealer and a Broadway hoofer. Anyway, after getting her fortune told by the third woman (Ronnell Bey), Emmie also hooks up with the Captain, gets stoned, gets addicted, gets cured at an A.A. meeting, and then everybody celebrates. I couldn't make any sense of it either.
If you ignore the bizarre attempt to thread the songs together, "Eli" makes for a stimulating journey through Nyro's poetic world. Each of the performers--except for the wasted Heredia, who has no vocal solos--shines. Kuhn's powerful voice and strong acting technique lend credibility and a through-line where none exist. Rose displays a vibrant gospel quality. Gonzalez conveys the confused yearnings of a lost young girl. Bey manages to be both sassy and sagacious in her motherly role. Kudos also to the band lead by Joe Rubenstein.
Word of warning: Skip the story, groove on the tunes, and surrey down.