Stage and screen star Laura Benanti has been a regular on Broadway since the age of eighteen, when she made her debut as Maria in The Sound of Music. Since then, she’s appeared in ten more Broadway shows (including Into the Woods, Nine, and My Fair Lady), won a Tony Award for her role in Gypsy, and has been nominated five times. Among her many film credits is the hit No Hard Feelings (with Jennifer Lawrence and Matthew Broderick) and on TV she’s been featured as a guest star in Gilded Age on Max, Elsbeth on CBS, and more.
In February, she played three live sold-out performances at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre of her new comedy show Laura Benanti: Nobody Cares, written by and starring the eponymous multi-talented actress, with original songs by Benanti and musical director and arranger Todd Almond, and by popular demand, she returned for another limited engagement from May 9-June 2, with an audio recording of the production soon to be released by Audible. Clearly her fans – both longtime and new – do care, as was evident in the packed house, non-stop laughter, and standing ovation on the date I attended (and, I’m sure, at every other performance).
The revealing show, directed by Annie Tippe, traces the path of Benanti’s personal life and career through no-holds-barred language, self-deprecating humor, and songs, as she reflects, in direct address to the audience, on the mistakes she made as a “people pleaser” and how she was taunted by the inner demons of her mind (here represented by the voices of back-up singers Barrie Lobo McLain and Chelsea Lee Williams and the band of Almond on piano, Clayton Craddock on drums, Edward W. Hardy on violin, Ann Klein on guitar, Catherine Popper on bass, and Daniel A. Weiss on guitar and keys).
With spot-on comic timing, hilarious moves, and readily legible facial expressions, Benanti talks about everything from her childhood as a theater nerd who didn’t fit in with the other kids (employing a blow-up photo of her young self that bears little resemblance to how she looks today), the injuries she sustained (on a girls’ soccer team and while performing unsafe pratfalls in a show), bad dates she endured, two divorces she went through (joking that she’s been married for 20 years, just not all to the same person), and the roles she played (both on and off stage) – all a result of her craving for attention and inability to say no.
She also calls out toxic masculinity and the patriarchy and her struggles with the people she encountered during her divorces, pregnancies, childbirth, motherhood, and perimenopause, skewering the absurdities and embracing a growing awareness of herself, a newfound sense of empowerment, her easy rapport with the audience, her happy marriage to a supportive husband, the kind and caring circle of women friends she met through him, and her love of their two daughters (ages seven and two), to whom she has given the right to decide what she can and can’t say about them in the show, in her transition from ingenue to “recovering ingenue.” Through it all, she’s obviously having as much fun as we are – and that’s a lot – laughing at herself, showcasing her phenomenal voice, actively moving around the stage, and exchanging occasional gibes with Almond.
Benanti’s shifting moods and stories are enhanced with lighting by Japhy Weideman and sound by Connor Wang, with dots serving as scenic consultant and Jake Sokoloff as her stylist (she looks stunning).
Aside from being laugh-out-loud funny, Laura Benanti: Nobody Cares offers an uplifting view of her learning and maturing into the open and perceptive woman she is today. If you missed the live performances at Minetta Lane, you can look forward to the upcoming release of the recorded audio version on Audible, on a date TBA.
Running Time: Approximately 75 minutes, without intermission.
Laura Benanti: Nobody Cares played through Sunday, June 2, 2024, at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre, 18 Minetta Lane, NYC.
