By Doug Sturdivant Having Patti LuPone for a sparring partner was a definite plus. "She's so playful and giving. You cannot get stuck. Some actors can get frozen in a way of doing things. She never is. It's like playing a new play every single night. You have the same goals, but the way you come at them may be a bit different. All three of us — Patti, Boyd and I — don't like to be robots. We continue to grow and change as we discover new things.
"In every role, I've tried to channel who that person is. Most of the arcs are from A to C — if you're real lucky, from A to F or G, but never A to Z — and, as an actress, to get to do that is truly extraordinary. Who knows when I'll ever get a chance to do it again?"
She gets to do it at 78 rpm nightly when that kiddie ditty, "Let Me Entertain You," steams up to stripper speed. "She goes from A to Z in that, but you gotta see all the letters in between in five minutes. It's like a time-lapse shot where flowers suddenly bloom. That's the image I had, but it must be believable. You have to see the gradual arc, but you don't see the true breaking-open of Louise into Gypsy until the strip."
Benanti feels melancholy about the Louise lost along the way. "Gypsy triumphed, but what was lost in that metamorphosis was some of her empathy and softness, so I mourn for Louise. There are times when it feels like taking off a beautiful sweater you love and putting on a corset. Other times, it feels like absolute freedom. It varies. She was thrust into a spotlight she didn't want and finally found — from strangers — the love she'd always wanted from her mother. There's a real tragedy in that story.
30 Aug 2008
Biologically, Benanti is an authentic Broadway baby (her parents performed the 1980 Brigadoon here: Martin Vidnovic was the lead, Tommy, and Linda Wonneberger understudied his love interest and was in the ensemble), but she counts herself a child of New Jersey, where she was raised "every single day" by her stepfather, Sal Benanti, a psychiatrist. Her mother, in fact, was something of The Anti-Rose, nixing all childhood auditions until her daughter was formed and grounded as a person.
"And, in all of that, she trained me vocally because she always knew I'd end up doing this. She's the epitome of selflessness, happy for everyone else and what they do. There's not an ounce of woulda-coulda-shoulda in her. If anyone feels that way, it's me - and she just says, 'But I love my life. I love your life. And I wouldn't change it.'"
Momma Rose Hovick, wherever she is, probably just grabbed her heart at those words, took pause, then quaked with a massive internal shudder. Sing out, Laura!
