Laura Benanti is about to lose the job for which she’s best known. And she’s not sad about it.
For four years, the 41-year-old actress with a killer soprano and a nimble wit has been channeling Melania Trump for “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” But Benanti knows her run will likely end at the same time as the Trump Administration.
“I feel thrilled,” she said. “I am more than willing to sacrifice this job in order to keep our democracy intact.”
The act has also paid dividends for Benanti, introducing her to those who may have missed her 12 Broadway shows, including a Tony-winning performance in “Gypsy.”
Thanks to the Colbert appearances, she said wryly, “People are finally taking me seriously as a comedian.”
The pandemic has been tough for Benanti: she and her husband each lost a grandmother to Covid-19. She is also remarkably busy, especially given that the coronavirus pandemic has stilled the careers of many performing artists.
Last month, Sony Music Masterworks released “Laura Benanti,” an album of contemporary and classic cover songs that she recorded late last year. It’s a mix of some of Benanti’s favorites, like “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life,” and “The Party’s Over,” and pop songs her producer suggested from the Jonas Brothers and Selena Gomez.
“At first I was really skeptical, because I didn’t want to sound like an old lady trying to be a teenager, but when I heard the arrangements, I was really blown away,” she added. “We were able to have 100 years worth of music on one album, and it all feels cohesive — it’s telling part of the same story.”
She is also the executive producer of “Homeschool Musical: Class of 2020,” a self-shot, documentary-style special that HBO Max is releasing Dec. 17. The show features performances by and interviews with high school seniors; it was inspired by Benanti’s invitation in March for students whose school shows were canceled by the pandemic to post clips to Twitter under the hashtag #SunshineSongs.
“It’s the artistic expression that they missed out their senior year of high school,” she said.
She is also back at work as an actor, shooting episodes of a “Gossip Girl” reboot for HBO Max and “Younger” for TV Land, and says being on set now “feels like being in a bad sci-fi movie.”
“It’s bizarre — it looks like you’re walking into a hospital, and everybody’s covered in P.P.E.,” she said. “I get a Covid test every single day — because they’re using different companies and will not rely on each other’s testing, the poor inside of my nose is raw — but I’m really impressed with the responsibility that they’re taking to keep everyone safe.”
In an interview from the new home in New Jersey she shares with her husband and their 3-year-old daughter (yes, Benanti is among those for whom the pandemic has catalyzed a move out of New York City), Benanti talked about her cultural essentials, crediting her sometime collaborator Ashley Van Buren with keeping her current. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
1. “The Queen’s Gambit”
Give me a period piece where a lady is doing something that women of that time didn’t do, and then is also addicted to alcohol and pills, and I’m in. Like, that’s just my genre. And Anya Taylor-Joy is just unbelievable.
2. “Stars in the House”
Seth Rudetsky and his husband James Wesley were doing two (web-streamed) shows a day, for a very long time, all to benefit the Actors Fund. Our Broadway family is decimated right now, and our health insurance is about to run out, and it’s really scary — it’s dire. They kept people’s spirits up, they kept their hopes alive, all while raising money for the Actors Fund, which does not just go to actors — it goes to everyone involved in the theatrical community. So for me that’s been a really wonderful thing to witness and to be a part of.
3. “What Kind of Woman”
Kate Baer just put out a book of poetry called “What Kind of Woman,” and I am obsessed with it. I can’t stop reading it. I devoured it one sitting and now I keep just going back and back and back. I found her through Instagram — I saw one of her poems — and I was like, “Who is this?” And we became friendly through social media, which is a new thing you can do, and every week she would post the poems, and I just became so enamored with her.
4. “Caste”
Another book I’m really loving is “Caste,” by Isabel Wilkerson. It’s never great to read about how Nazis were inspired by our systemic racism, but I think it’s a really important read, especially for white people and especially right now. It’s pretty shocking to me that if it were up to white people we would still have Donald Trump for a second presidency. We have Black people, and especially Black women, to thank, yet again, for saving a democracy that does the least for them. So I feel like, frankly, it’s my privilege and my duty to read books like that.
5. “Ted Lasso”
It’s the most feel-good television show you’re ever going to watch in your whole life. Look, it’s about soccer in England, which I could care less about. But I love a workplace comedy that does not require you to love the thing they’re talking about. It has that vibe for me, but it’s also laugh-out-loud funny. And I love that it’s unabashedly about a good person — a joyful, good person, going throughout life giving people the benefit of the doubt and seeing how that ripples.
6. Jordan Firstman and Caitlin Reilly
They are these two comedians, and they’re on Instagram and TikTok and they are doing impressions that are so next-level funny, so much funnier than any show on TV. Any time I’m needing a little pick-me-up I just go onto their pages and I’ll watch it over and over again. I’m also really excited by seeing how people are using social media and the internet to create their own content. It’s really hard in the corporate world of TV and film to make something really good that you’re proud of, and to be able to do it directly from your own house and onto your phone is kind of magical.
7. Virtual Museum Talks
I just think it’s so remarkable that you’re able now to basically sit in on a lecture at the Fashion Museum in Bath, England, and watch a lecture on fashion in the Jazz Age. Museums can feel really distant and stuffy, and the fact that people can now Zoom in, in their pajamas from the comfort of their own homes, is kind of miraculous. I am actually very bad at fashion, and I don’t really understand it. But I just like to learn about anything. I just like to get out of my own thoughts.
8. GenZHER
There’s a 15-year-old girl whose name is Zikora Akanegbu and she created an Instagram account, and now a zine called GenZHER, that connects young women and mentors, and gives advice on how to get your first job and a ton of really amazing things. And I just think it’s such an incredible example of what these young people are able to do.
9. #SunshineSongs
Am I allowed to say #SunshineSongs even though it’s my own thing that I started? For me, going and revisiting that hashtag, that people are still posting things to, and seeing all of these young people pouring their hearts out, and the incredible innovation. At a time where I feel like the language that we speak is mostly sarcasm, it’s so refreshing to see kids care about something. So that and also videos of people in Italy singing out their windows to each other. Seeing people pour their art out into a world that feels really dark — that to me is really beautiful.
10. “I Can’t Breathe”
I’m really inspired by H.E.R. in general — she’s so prolific — and this song in particular feels like something we all really need to hear. Music is so powerful in that it opens your heart to a place where you can then receive whatever message it is, and I think that that’s something that song does really beautifully.
