STAGE TO SCREENS: Chatting with Stage and Screen Star Laura Benanti
By Michael Buckley
28 Aug 2005
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Laura Benanti in "Starved"
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This month we chat with Laura Benanti, who currently may be seen in the controversial FX cable comedy "Starved" and who returns to Broadway this season as the female lead in the new musical The Wedding Singer.
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It's true that some elements of Laura Benanti's career, to date, read like a Cinderella story: an 18-year-old high-school graduate makes her Broadway debut in a major revival, then dons the glass slipper by succeeding the star. Within five years, she appears in four more musicals and is twice nominated for a Tony Award. But fairy-tale heroines don't break their necks; Benanti did, while playing Cinderella.
Explains the actress, "It was during [the 2002 revival of] Into the Woods. I was doing a pratfall — the second one, where I ran down the stairs and [fell] onto my belly — and, one night, my legs went up over my head and I heard my neck snap. I had so much adrenaline that I got up and kept going. By the end of the show, I couldn't feel my body. I had herniated two discs. I was misdiagnosed. They told me the discs were herniated to the side. Actually, they were herniated directly into my spinal cord and were cutting off spinal fluid."
Was the accident publicized? "No. I wasn't allowed to talk about it," she claims. "Unfortunately, the producers of the show were really unkind to me. When questioned for comment, they would not say that I had injured myself, but basically said, 'Oh, it's a shame that Laura misses so many shows.' There was a lot of gossip. It was very hurtful; it was really a horrible time."
Benanti continues, "During rehearsals for
Nine, my friend, Mary Stuart Masterson [cast as Guido's wife, Luisa], referred me to a doctor. He made the correct diagnosis, and said, 'There is no reason why you should not have been paralyzed.' Two days later [eight months after the injury], I had surgery that saved my life. Three weeks after that, I was doing previews in
Nine." Benanti still experiences some neck pain, "and something called myelopathy, which is 30 percent lost feeling, strength and dexterity in my hands and arms and face.
"I hate to sound like a Pollyanna," states Benanti, "but in a way [the ordeal] was kind of a blessing. It puts things in perspective. You learn who your friends are; you realize the importance of family. I was 18 when I did Sound of Music. My life started to get very linear; I started to get tunnel vision. [The injury] opened my eyes as to how I wanted to be as a human being."
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"Starved" (FX, Thursdays, 10 PM ET), which focuses on four thirtysomething Brooklynites with various eating disorders, casts Benanti as Billie, a bisexual folk singer-songwriter and recovering bulimic/anorexic. Eric Schaeffer, the show's creator, appears as Sam, a commodities trader addicted to sweets; Sterling K. Brown is Adam, a bulimic cop; and Del Pentecost portrays Dan, who's considering gastric bypass surgery. Reviews were mixed, and there were some concerns that the diseases were being trivialized.
According to Benanti, "It's a difficult subject matter, especially for a comedy. It's not everyone's cup of tea. People magazine gave it four stars; the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times hated it. We had eight days [to do each of the seven half-hour episodes], and it was filmed out of sequence. I'm proud of my work in it; I felt like I did a pretty good job. The reviews for me have been nice. I loved working with Sterling Brown and Del Pentecost. It was a great learning experience."
From small screen to big: Benanti soon will be seen in her first two movies. Both "were so much fun [to make]." In "Social Grace," directed by B.D. Wong, she plays "a small role, a Greek princess who was brought up in English boarding school. She's not a nice person and not particularly bright." Among the cast, which includes several New York actors, is Sarah Rafferty who, notes Benanti, "has become a really close friend."
"Take the Lead" reunites Benanti with Nine star Antonio Banderas. "I play his business partner and love interest. But, with editing, you never know how big a part ends up. I love Antonio! He's a great guy. We have a goofy, brotherly/sisterly relationship. Everyone thinks of Antonio as this sex symbol, but he's really just the cutest boy in the world."
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On July 25, Benanti married Chris Barron, lead singer for the rock group Spin Doctors. She met her Prince Charming who, the bride confides, plays a mean ukulele, "in the elevator of my old apartment building, a couple of years ago. It was right after my surgery. I was on my way to physical therapy. We just chatted, and then he left me a note under my door. At the gym, one of his videos came on. I said, 'Oh, my God, that's the guy from the elevator.' When I asked him about it, he said, 'Well, I don't go around bragging.' That made me like him even more. The rest is history. [Laughs]"
Of Yugoslavian-German-Irish-Native American heritage, she was raised in Kinnelon, NJ, the daughter of Dr. Salvatore Benanti, a psychotherapist, and the former Linda Wonneberger, who's Laura's vocal coach. Younger sister Mariel is a sophomore (and psych major) at Philadelphia's St. Joseph's University. "I love her!" exclaims Laura. "She's wonderful, so bright, and so athletic — the most generous person. I constantly try to be more like her."
During her teens, Benanti performed in school and community productions, including Evita (as Peron's mistress), Into the Woods (Cinderella), Follies (Young Heidi), and Hello, Dolly! (the title role). At New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse, she appeared in Jane Eyre (playing Mary Rivers) and Man of La Mancha (as Antonia).
Robert Johanson, then artistic director of Paper Mill, recommended Benanti for the role of Liesl in the 1998 Broadway revival of The Sound of Music. It was her first Broadway audition. She came across as too mature for a girl "16, going on 17," but was called back several times to be considered for one of the nuns. Then director Susan H. Schulman became aware of her potential.
Quoted in a 2001 New York Times interview, Schulman recollected: "Laura had a kind of emotional transparency — the way she connected to the material, the way she inhabited the lyrics. . . . I turned to the producers, 'I know you think I'm out of my mind, but we've got to read this kid for the lead.' And we did. Gave her some lines, a cold reading. And the same thing happened. The connection was so visceral. It's just there — a gift. Onstage is where she lives." Benanti was signed to understudy Rebecca Luker as Maria (and play the small role of a postulant). Her Broadway debut occurred when she subbed for the star during a two-week vacation.
A year later, she succeeded Luker. At 19, Benanti was an absolutely wonderful Maria, opposite Richard Chamberlain (then 65). As do others, I believe that had she opened in the show, Benanti would have been an overnight sensation. Her Playbill bio began, "Once upon a time, there was a girl who dreamed of being on Broadway. . . "
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