Tammy Faye Starlite’s ‘Nico Underground’ Show Returns To Joe’s Pub July 24

Hoboken’s Tammy Faye Starlite will return to Joe’s Pub in New York City July 24 as the legendary ‘60s chanteuse Nico [1938-1988] with songs by Lou Reed, The Doors, Jackson Browne, David Bowie, Rogers & Hart, Gordon Lightfoot and Bob Dylan. The production has been called “riveting psychological theater.”

Starlite manages to get inside the head of this mysterious figure who was a confidant of Jim Morrison, became part of artist Andy Warhol’s retinue, sang in The Velvet Underground, nurtured a teenaged Jackson Browne and amassed a cult following with her modeling, solo albums and acting (she appeared in Fellini’s 1960 La Dolce Vita) until she perished in a cycling accident in her native Germany in 1988 at the age of 49. Lou Reed biographer Anthony DeCurtis calls the show “unsettling and gripping…more than a tribute to a significant cultural figure.”

Somehow Starlite manages to actually become Nico. What started out as a parody has transcended into a transfixing trip back through time with Starlite fine-tuning her performances in California, Florida, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania under the auspices of The Andy Warhol Foundation, and after years of studying the interviews, film, music and written material about the icon. The band—acoustic guitarist/husband Keith Hartel, electric guitarist Richard Feridun, drummer Ron “Miracle” Metz, keyboardist Dave Nagler, violinist Ester Balint and sax/flute player Craig Hoek—is sterling. Jeff Ward plays “The Interviewer” and her deadpan responses as Nico are heartbreaking, hysterical, endearing, revealing and ultimately fascinating. And yes, she stays in character throughout.

Tammy Faye Starlite started out on the soap opera The Guiding Light before becoming a comedian, singer and impressionist. Her recreation of another 1960s pop icon, Marianne Faithful, in “Cabaret Marianne,” has been described as “jaw-dropping” in Spin magazine. She has also performed in the past as Blondie’s Debbie Harry. Her attention-to-detail within her mimicry is riveting.

Tickets: https://publictheater.org/reserve/reserve?productionseasonNumber=46933&performanceNumber=47469