{"id":5094,"date":"2018-01-08T22:56:26","date_gmt":"2018-01-08T22:56:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/?p=5094"},"modified":"2019-04-09T23:09:00","modified_gmt":"2019-04-09T23:09:00","slug":"tony-winner-laura-benanti-strips-away-everything-to-reveal-herself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2018\/01\/08\/tony-winner-laura-benanti-strips-away-everything-to-reveal-herself\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Winner Laura Benanti Strips Away Everything to Reveal Herself"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In her 2008 Tony-Award winning performance as stripper Gypsy Rose Lee in the classic musical <em>Gypsy<\/em>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.laurabenanti.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Laura Benanti<\/a> turned the song \u201cLet Me Entertain You\u201d into an act of absolute seduction. At last year\u2019s Tony Awards she channeled Elaine Stritch in a comedic tribute to Broadway stars who haven\u2019t been as lucky with their television roles. But when she takes the stage at Catalina Bar and Grill this week, she might be playing her toughest role yet: herself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI like that people get to know you separately from the roles you\u2019ve played,\u201d she says. \u201cYou get to step out from behind those characters and communicate with the audience. Then you get to step back into the character of the songs. In some ways I feel more comfortable being myself than being on stage in a character. I want people to feel like they are coming into my home. I want people to see me, warts and all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The show came about after Benanti was booked at New York\u2019s 54 Below in May of 2013. These two L.A. appearances will celebrate the recording of those concerts, <em>In Constant Search of the Right Kind of Attention<\/em>. \u201cI was nervous at first, but I stuck pretty closely to plan. Not that I\u2019ve written anything, but I have bullet points and stuck rather rigidly to them.\u201d She then admits, \u201cI think I\u2019ve gotten looser. A lot of what you hear on the album is improvisation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The show, which features a mix of showtunes and popular music, also includes original material by Benanti. \u201c\u2018The Ukulele Song\u2019 is pretty self-explanatory. That came about when I was at my parents\u2019 house in New Jersey; I had this tune in my head and the song came out. \u2018New Mexico\u2019 is a song I wrote as a little girl and Todd Almond brilliantly [arranged]it. My 9-year-old self could not be more thrilled that a song that I wrote when I was a child is now on an album. I find it profoundly moving.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5096\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5096\" style=\"width: 199px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-5096\" src=\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/GypsyBway067-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"Benanti won a Tony Award for her role in &quot;Gypsy&quot;\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/GypsyBway067-199x300.jpg 199w, https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/GypsyBway067-681x1024.jpg 681w, https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/GypsyBway067-696x1047.jpg 696w, https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/GypsyBway067-279x420.jpg 279w, https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/GypsyBway067.jpg 750w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5096\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Laura Benanti in &#8220;Gypsy&#8221; (Courtesy of LauraBenanti.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In <em>Gypsy<\/em>, the role of Mama Rose was played by Patti LuPone (who also won a Tony Award.) In 2010 they appeared together again in <em>Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown<\/em>. What did Benanti learn from LuPone? \u201cShe made me a better actor. She is always present, always in the moment. She taught me that you can\u2019t anticipate anything; it takes the fun out of it. You have to trust yourself to be in your own body.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>No doubt that advice came in handy during the recent <em>Sound of Music Live<\/em> when, as baroness Elsa Schrader, Benanti had her dress stepped on. She laughs before beginning. \u201cI thought before the broadcast that something will go wrong but I\u2019m sure it won\u2019t have to do with me. I was surprised when it did. I was so invested in this other human being and not thinking of myself. In retrospect it was good. I want people to remember this is live. There\u2019s no going back. This is theater brought to your home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Topping Benanti\u2019s list of dream theater projects is playing Eliza Doolittle in <em>My Fair Lady.<\/em> \u201cThe clock is ticking. I better do this now. I\u2019m not getting any younger.\u201d She also admits to wanting to play \u201cevery Sondheim role\u201d including Desiree in <em>A Little Night Music <\/em>and Mrs. Lovett in <em>Sweeney Todd<\/em>. \u201cTo me his music <em>is<\/em> musical theatre. It cuts straight to the core. There\u2019s no extraneous expression. I relate to almost every single song in a very deep way. He has a tremendous ability to look into the heart and soul of humanity.\u201d As her nine-year-old self realized, \u201ca girl\u2019s gotta do, what a girl\u2019s gotta do\u2026sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Originally published at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lamag.com\/culturefiles\/curtain-call-tony-winner-laura-benanti-strips-away-everything-to-reveal-herself\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">LAMag.com<\/a> on January 8, 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI\u2019m just being myself. It\u2019s just me. It\u2019s not slick. I\u2019m not interested in that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,11],"tags":[501,258,2926,2919,2917,2925,181,163],"class_list":{"0":"post-5094","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cabaret","8":"category-performers-close-up","9":"tag-a-little-night-music","10":"tag-gypsy","11":"tag-in-constant-search-of-the-right-kind-of-attention","12":"tag-laura-benanti","13":"tag-my-fair-lady","14":"tag-sound-of-music","15":"tag-sweeney-todd","16":"tag-women-on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Tony Winner Laura Benanti Strips Away Everything to Reveal Herself - Cultural Attach\u00e9<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/culturalattache.co\/2018\/01\/08\/tony-winner-laura-benanti-strips-away-everything-to-reveal-herself\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tony Winner Laura Benanti Strips Away Everything to Reveal Herself - Cultural Attach\u00e9\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cI\u2019m just being myself. 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