Tony Award-winner Laura Benanti bringing some 'Broadway in Worcester' March 18
Growing up in New Jersey, Tony Award-winning actress and singer Laura Benanti said she was drawn to her mother's "incredible record collection" which had the soundtracks of a number of Broadway shows.
Both her parents were Broadway performers although they had divorced when she was young. Playing the records, including Stephen Sondheim shows, Benanti was struck by the way music could tell a story.
"I was just very moved by it. I still am," Benanti said. She had thought of musicals and Broadway from a young age. "I don't remember ever wanting to do anything else."
Now Benanti has her own stories to tell of Broadway, including not only winning a Tony Award but getting five Tony nominations, as well as being a TV and screen actress, and much more besides.
In that spirit she will perform her own show, "An Evening with Tony Award Winner Laura Benanti,” at 8 p.m. March 18 at the BrickBox Theater at the Jean McDonough Arts Center, 20 Franklin Street, Worcester, presented by "Broadway in Worcester. Benanti's voice has been called as coming from the "Golden age of Broadway sopranos."
Benanti, as audiences will likely see, is not afraid to stand up for what she believes in while also capable of having self-effacing fun at her own expense. The New York Times has praised Benanti's own show for its “supreme command, a thrilling voice and a wild sense of humor."
The March 18 performance is also the debut of "Broadway in Worcester," a brand new initiative launched by Worcester's Eric Butler that's committed to "providing Central Massachusetts audiences the opportunity to see Broadway’s most celebrated talents perform locally."
From 3:30 to 5 p.m. March 18, Benanti will put on an educational workshop supported by the George F. and Sybil H. Fuller Foundation. The workshop, a partnership among Broadway in Worcester, Worcester Public Schools, and The Hanover Theater and Conservatory for the Performing Arts, will be free for high school and college aged students and their arts educators.
"Laura is one of the American theater’s most celebrated performers," Butler said. "Moreover, she is one of Broadway’s biggest champions of arts education, racial justice and social equity. Her talents, passions and priorities go unrivaled."
"An Evening with Tony Award Winner Laura Benanti" at the BrickBox Theater will be Benanti's first visit to Worcester, she said during a recent telephone interview.
A night of songs, stories
The show features songs from her career along with humorous anecdotes and experiences she has encountered on and off the stage and screen.
"It's a very relaxed evening," Benanti said. "I like to think people are in my living room."
The songs are "mostly from my Broadway shows that I have had the honor of doing on stage, my self-titled album (released in 2020), and a few songs I love to sing."
Joining her on stage will be her musical director and piano accompanist Billy Stritch, who is well known for his long tenure as Liza Minelli's music director.
"Billy Stritch is an amazing artist in his own right," Benanti said.
Benanti said her show doesn't have a chronological narrative. She starts with "'My Fair Lady' in Fifteen Minutes or Less," a quick medley from the musical in which she played Eliza Doolittle when she was in the Broadway revival production from 2018-19 (her most recent Broadway appearance).
"I feel like we're on a trip together. I have a map but I take a lot of side streets," she said of her show. Then there's the improvisational element since this is a live show with an in-person audience, "which we haven't had for a while," she said, referring to the lockdown and the pandemic.
However, a chronological approach to Benanti's career would also soon be hitting high spots.
High school star
Although Benanti might have yearned for a career in musical theater from an early age, her family, in her own best interests, saw to it that "I was definitely not a professional child actor," she said.
Still, when Benanti was 16 she starred in a high school production of "Hello Dolly" which won the first Paper Mill Playhouse Rising Star Award for Outstanding Actress in a high school production.
The Paper Mill Playhouse of New Jersey has a direct line to Broadway, and Benanti was recommended for the 1998-99 revival Broadway production of "The Sound of Music." She was an understudy to Rebecca Luker playing Maria, and then took over the role at the age of 19 when Luker left the show. (Luker sadly died in 2020 months after receiving an ALS diagnosis.)
"At 19 I was playing opposite Richard Chamberlain (as Captain von Trapp). It was a fairy tale when I tell it now. I didn't realize it at the time, but now I do," Benanti said.
It wasn't a Cinderella story that ended at midnight, although she did play Cinderella in 2002 in "Into the Woods" (Tony nomination) after having appeared in the Broadway revue "Swing" (Tony nomination).
Other Broadway appearances have included "The Wedding Singer" (2006) followed by "Gypsy" (2008-09) with Benanti playing Louise opposite Patti LuPone as the mother, Rose. Benanti won the Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She was nominated again for a Tony for "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" (2010), and also in 2016 for "She Loves Me." In 2017 she appeared on Broadway in "Steve Martin's Meteor Show" followed by "My Fair Lady."
"'My Fair Lady' was one of my dream roles," Benanti said. Regarding whether she has a favorite Broadway musical, "I have to say I love all the shows," she said, but listed "Gypsy," "My Fair Lady" and "She Loves Me."
Tony winner
Patti LuPone "is an absolute genius," Benanti said of working opposite her in "Gypsy."
"She doesn't give unsolicited advice. The best advice came from just observing how collaborative she was. I never heard her challenge the director or (behave) in a way that wasn't professional. That for me was the thing, to learn from her by watching and observing."
Winning the Tony, like starring on Broadway for the first time, was a dream come true, Benanti said.
But the Broadway road hasn't always been smooth, including sustaining a neck injury in one production that has had bad lingering effects.
Asked what advice she would give to Broadway aspirants, Benanti didn't really want to go down that particular avenue in any overt way.
"Advice is such a tricky slope, isn't it?" she said. Advice "can be a little dangerous." There are basics such as "show up on time, be kind, learning names — that's important."
For herself, "Growing up I had to learn to thicken my skin while maintaining a permeability."
Benanti has also been a presence in TV and movies. She stars in the new Hulu series “Life and Beth” opposite Amy Schumer, and other television credits include “Gossip Girl,” “Younger,” “The Detour,” “Supergirl,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Nashville,” “Nurse Jackie," and a turn as First Lady Melania Trump on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” Films have included “Tick,Tick, Boom,” “Worth” starring Michael Keaton, and “Here Today” starring Billy Crystal.
When it comes to performing on stage or in front of a camera, "I love performing live, to me it's the most exhilarating. But it is also ephemeral. The nice thing about cameras is it's forever. So I enjoy that. They're just so different. But I'll always love live theater more than anything," Benanti said.
She has also been reaching out into producing. In 2020, Benanti created and executive produced the HBO Max special "Homeschool Musical," an unscripted musical special featuring students from across the U.S. She also produced the children’s album, “Singing You Home — Children's Songs for Family Reunification,” from which all proceeds are donated to reuniting families separated at the border.
Words of advice
As restrictions are eased as COVID cases decline, Benanti said, "I'm in the gestational phase of a lot of things" regrading future possible shows. Meanwhile she has her own live show and a March 18 appearance here.
Asked for a final words of advice, this time for people at large, Benanti said, "My one word of advice, and again you know how I feel about advice, I think one of the things I have observed is a decrease in empathy … What I'm hoping is that we dig into as much empathy as we can."
Butler said of Benanti, "We couldn’t be prouder to have her join us in Worcester for this inaugural event with her esteemed musical director and accompanist Billy Stritch.”
The idea of "Broadway in Worcester" is for it to be an annual or biannual event to bring in "A-list Broadway artists who have a commitment to work with students as well," he said.
He set about bringing Laura Benanti to Worcester because "I was familiar with her work and commitment to education."
Laura Benanti's March 18 show is being treated "as a pilot to see if the market is sustainable," Butler said.
Butler is director of development at edX, an online education platform founded by Harvard and MIT, and is founder of Final Bow Productions, a commercial theater investment and production company. He is chairman of the board for the Worcester Cultural Coalition, a board member and past president for Worcester County Light Opera Company, and a corporator for the Worcester Art Museum
"Broadway in Worcester" has been displaying some good humor as it tries to get the word out. For example, on its Facebook page (www.facebook.com/broadwayinworcester/) there are images of local personalities superimposed on Broadway shows, and Broadway shows superimposed on local settings and landmarks. "It's been a lot of fun," Butler said.
Opening night March 18 will be both fun and serious.
"It will be a red carpeted show," he said of "An Evening with Tony Award Winner Laura Benanti” at the BrickBox Theater at the JMAC.
"It will have the feel of an old-school Broadway opening."
Ticket prices range from $82 to $132. To purchase tickets, go to jmacworcester.org
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Tony winner Laura Benanti brings some Broadway to Worcester's BrickBox Theater
