Laura Benanti And Her Mother, Linda, Perform Together In NY This Week
Tony Award winner Laura Benanti and her mother, Linda, are offering a humorous show about mother-daughter relationships at 54 Below this week.
With music direction byBilly Stritch, the Benantiswill perform”Mother Knows Best” nightly at the Broadway supper club from July 16 through July 19.
NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 05: Laura Benanti and Linda Benanti perform onstage during Feinstein's/54 Below 5th Anniversary All-Star Celebration at Feinstein's/54 Below on June 5, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Santiago Felipe/Getty Images)
Getty ImagesRaised in Kinnelon, N.J., Laura jumped from the lead in her high school musical, Hello, Dolly!, to appear as Maria in the 1998 Broadway revival of The Sound of Music. She has since starred in 11 Broadway shows and been nominated for five Tony Awards, winning one in 2008 for best featured actress in a musical, as Louise in Gypsy.
Her mother, Linda Benanti, was part of the national tour of The Odyssey with Yul Brynner, and performed off-Broadway and regionally as The Girl in The Fantasticks, Guinevere in Camelot, Marian in The Music Man, Anne in A Little Night Music, Nanette in No, No, Nanette and Sarah in Guys and Dolls, among others. After retiring from performing, Linda opened a vocal studio in Kinnelon, teaching everyone from local students to Broadway stars.
She and her daughter, who has two daughters of her own, are performing their 54 Below show across the country; they originally offered it at 54 Below last summer.
In an interview this week with Forbes.com, Linda said she taught Laura, giving her “little things” to perform at age 11; she said her daughter was a “great student.”
Laura said their encore at 54 Below will be a song she wrote with Ann Klein, “I’m Gonna Miss This,” about her and her mother’s maternal experience; she said “you can’t fully understand being a mother until you are one.”
She also called her and her mother’s performances “such a special thing. Mom had been a Broadway actress and stopped her career to raise myself and my sister.”
She said she loved watching audiences watch her mom, “step into her light and her gifts.”
Linda also called performing with Laura “a gift. Singing with my daughter is one of the greatest joys.”
Laura’s TV credentials include Life & Beth, created by and starring Amy Schumer; Younger; HBO Max’s Gossip Girl reboot; and the second season of The Gilded Age. Other television credits include guest-starring roles in Cinema Toast; Ziwe, featuring comedian Ziwe Fumudoh; and Inside Amy Schumer. Laura has also made widely acclaimed appearances on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert as Melania Trump, and created and executive-produced the HBO Max special, Homeschool Musical: Class of 2020, based on her viral social media movement, #sunshinesongs.
In film, Laura starred in Worth opposite Michael Keaton, Stanley Tucci and Amy Ryan, and Here Today opposite Billy Crystal and Tiffany Haddish. She also appeared in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tick, Tick…Boom!
Her other Broadway credits include Into the Woods; Nine (opposite Antonio Banderas); She Loves Me; My Fair Lady; and Steve Martin’s Meteor Shower, opposite Amy Schumer and Keegan Michael Key.
She is currently filming the comedy, No Hard Feelings, opposite Jennifer Lawrence and Matthew Broderick, and The Shade, based on the award-winning short of the same name.
She will make her UK debut performing her show, Nobody Cares, from July 30 through August 24 at the Edinburgh Fringe.
The show had two off-Broadway runs last year and has been released by Audible in a live audio recording.
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