#4
Posted: 4/1/26 at 9:41pm
HenryTDobson said: "God I love her. Come back to Broadway!!!!!!"
Our girl is paying bills with money she can’t make on Broadway. She’ll be back once the kids are older.
#5
Posted: 4/1/26 at 10:11pm
HenryTDobson said: "God I love her. Come back to Broadway!!!!!!"
she once said Broadway cannot reopen until all sorts of social injustice issues are fully resolved. So i am not expecting her to come back anytime soon.
Plus producers would need to hire at least 2 standby / understudies if Benanti is in the show - because "the show must go on"
#6
Posted: 4/1/26 at 11:47pm
spicemonkey said: "she once said Broadway cannot reopen until all sorts of social injustice issues are fully resolved. So i am not expecting her to come back anytime soon.
Plus producers would need to hire at least 2 standby / understudies ifBenanti is in the show - because "the show must go on""
Since you want to act very stupid, here is what Laura ACTUALLY said and it was from May 2021 regarding Broadway re-opening during the pandemic.
We absolutely cannot reopen without significant changes being made in order to make our theaters, rehearsal rooms and spaces safe for our BIPOC, trans and disabled colleagues. We can’t do that without the support of our Union, producers and theatre companies.
It's also absolutely insane to try and bring up her Attendance issues from 20 years ago that was the direct result of an onstage injury that caused cervical fractures, herneriated discs, leaking spinal fluid, partial paralysis, and required 2 surgeries!
Updated On: 4/1/26 at 11:47 PM
#7
Posted: 4/2/26 at 12:45pm
TheatreFan4 said: "Since you want to act very stupid, here is what Laura ACTUALLY said and it was from May 2021 regarding Broadway re-opening during the pandemic.
We absolutely cannot reopen without significant changes being made in order to make our theaters, rehearsal rooms and spaces safe for our BIPOC, trans and disabled colleagues. We can’t do that without the support of our Union, producers and theatre companies.
It's also absolutely insane to try and bring up her Attendance issues from 20 years ago that was the directresult of an onstage injury that caused cervical fractures, herneriated discs, leaking spinal fluid,partial paralysis, and required 2 surgeries!"
Well said.
I wonder what the ages of the "teenagers" were, if they were international students, and also if they were traveling with chaperones. Surely someone should, or would have recognized Benanti from her Melania Trump appearances on Colbert, or the video of "She Loves Me".
I love that Benanti made this video. (Honestly, I feel like she probably was recognized, but went for the humor instead...). 
#8
Posted: 4/2/26 at 12:48pm
Surely someone should, or would have recognized Benanti from her Melania Trump appearances on Colbert, or the video of "She Loves Me".
You seriously must be joking. Both references are only known to a niche audience. I’m sure those theater group kids have no idea who Stephen Colbert is or what this SHE LOVES ME thing is that you’re talking about.
#9
Posted: 4/2/26 at 1:05pm
To be fair current theatre teens are only obsessed with Hadestown or The Outsiders and the last show Benanti appeared in on Broadway (not counting her cameos in Freestyle Love Supreme and Gutenberg) was as a replacement in My Fair Lady which was pre pandemic. They likely wouldn’t know her, unless their school was performing She Loves Me.
We desperately need her back on Broadway, though. I could be wrong, but isn’t she attached to the Thelma & Louise stage adaptation?
My father (AIDS)
My sister (AIDS)
My uncle and my cousin and her best friend (AIDS, AIDS, AIDS)
The gays and the straights
And the white and the spades
#10
Posted: 4/2/26 at 1:19pm
It's a little embarrassing that those kids didn't know who she was. But it was also a wakeup to me about her career and how much she has slowed down since having kids and finding more success on screen.
Between 1999 and 2010 she had prominent roles 7 Broadway musicals and one play (and got 3 Tony noms + a win), plus all those one-nighters and concert productions. From 2011 to 2026, she's only been in 2 musicals + 1 play (and got one Tony nom), and in the past decade hasn't done any Encores (or similar). And I doubt that kids born in ~2010 are watching SOUND OF MUSIC LIVE on rotation!
I hope she is enjoying a fulfilling life and career but I PERSONALLY would like her back on the New York stage in some great musical roles if she would like to lend us her time!
#11
Posted: 4/2/26 at 1:42pm
I maintain that Laura would be an utterly fabulous Madeline Ashton. And I think her name would sell tickets on par with, or exceed, Hilty. After her past on-stage injury, perhaps she might have some PTSD at tackling that type of physical comedy again haha, but I can't stop thinking about the way she would chew through that material.
Also do we remember those videos she did dressed as Fosca from Passion in Times Square? hysterical. I don't think that show will ever be a commercial hit, but by god let Benanti do a revival! Every other Sondheim show has gotten one.
#12
Posted: 4/2/26 at 1:49pm
I think she could be a great Celine. But that seems unlikely.
#13
Posted: 4/2/26 at 2:41pm
I have never gotten to see her in a show and am dying to.
I was, however, at 54 Below the night after the Tony's when she walked onstage with the liquor bottle she brought out at the ceremony. We were on the floor laughing.
Just give the world Love. - S. Wonder
#14
Posted: 4/2/26 at 2:46pm
Each season i keep hoping she’ll do an Encores show, if she can’t commit to a full Broadway run of something. So many roles in so many shows she would be brilliant for.
#15
Posted: 4/2/26 at 3:07pm
With her versatile voice AND her sketch comedy background, I'd love to see her opposite another singing comedian as Belle Poitrine, age 16-60, in the revised "Little Me."
#16
Posted: 4/2/26 at 3:09pm
Jack Viertel claimed she was lined up to do Ruth in WONDERFUL TOWN during his time at Encores (pre-Covid) but then that didn't come to fruition.
#18
Posted: 4/2/26 at 5:04pm
I maintain that Laura would be an utterly fabulous Madeline Ashton.
She already addressed DEATH BECOMES HER several months ago and she’s not interested. The physical and vocal demands 8 times a week are just one big turn off for her. Being a mother of 2 young daughters is physically demanding as it is. The commitment required for either role is no longer in her realm of reality.
#19
Posted: 4/2/26 at 5:09pm
BrodyFosse123 said: "Surelysomeoneshould, or would have recognized Benanti from her Melania Trump appearances on Colbert, or the video of "She Loves Me".
You seriously must be joking.Both references are only known to a niche audience. I’m sure those theater group kids have no idea who Stephen Colbert is or what this SHE LOVES ME thing is that you’re talking about."
You "seriously" either didn't read the post, or don't understand what theater kids are. ...or what an accompanying adult might be.
#20
Posted: 4/2/26 at 11:21pm
I was in the same lobby as Benanti, Tveit, and at least two dozen tween/teen MT students a couple years ago. They went nuts when they noticed Tveit and nearly ran into Benanti trying to get to him.
I am big. It’s the REVIVALS that got small.
#21
Posted: 4/3/26 at 2:39am
I can believe Laura Benanti would go unrecognized by high school kids, even if she’s exaggerating for comedic effect. I saw her in Nobody Cares at the Berkeley Rep a few months ago, and in My Fair Lady in 2019 when those kids would have been starting middle school or in elementary school.
My two immediate thoughts for a limited run: An Encores! show, as mentioned. And a short run in Oh, Mary!
#22
Posted: 4/3/26 at 8:47am
I hope she does something on stage soon, she is wonderful. Seeing Audra’s production of Gypsy only reminded me how much Benanti brought to her production as Louise.
#23
Posted: 4/3/26 at 9:02am
I’m a HUGE fan, and I honestly don’t know if I would recognize her in public… stars look very different on stage/screen vs off.
#24
Posted: 4/3/26 at 11:22am
As Ermengarde pointed out, Benanti has appeared in 13 different Broadway or Encores productions and been nominated for 5 Tony awards. Unlike most performers, she got promoted to lead in her first Broadway show, so she never did that "years in the ensemble" thing, and she had prominent roles in all 13 shows. Anyone who was a regular Broadway theatergoer from the late 90s through the next two decades knows who she is.
That being said, she's markedly cut back her theater work now that she has small kids. As she points out, she won her Tony in 2008, when most high school students weren't born yet. Even She Loves Me was 10 years ago. And if theater kids haven't seen her on stage, the main reason they would know her is because she originated roles in shows they are doing at school or have seen on stage, but most of Benanti's Broadway shows were revivals. She's only originated a role in 3 Broadway musicals, namely Swing, The Wedding Singer, and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, which are probably not 3 shows that are done in schools at the level of something like Thoroughly Modern Millie, which made Sutton Foster a household name for theater kids, nor are they shows that are probably done a lot regionally like Next to Normal, which contributes to Aaron Tveit's fame in theater-kid circles. The two plays she's done on Broadway are In the Next Room and Meteor Shower, which also aren't done much in schools or regionally at this point, and probably have little appeal to teenagers, anyway. The pro-shot of She Loves Me is probably the main way a current high school student would be familiar with her theater work.
I personally think a theater kid SHOULD know who Laura Benanti is. She's one of the greats. One of her lines from Women on the Verge is in my signature. But, putting aside one-night gigs, she hasn't appeared on stage, Broadway or otherwise, in almost 7 years, when these theater kids were around 10 years old.
(I second the idea that she should do "Oh, Mary!" She would be fantastic in that.)
"What was the name of that cheese that I like?"
"you can't run away forever...but there's nothing wrong with getting a good head start"
"well I hope and I pray, that maybe someday, you'll walk in the room with my heart"
Updated On: 4/3/26 at 11:22 AM
#25
Posted: 4/4/26 at 11:42am
She's doing her Nobody Cares show August 6-9 at Steppenwolf in Chicago:
https://www.steppenwolf.org/tickets--events/seasons-/2025-26/laura-benanti-nobody-cares/
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Tickets From $89
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