Pop Culturalist Catches Up with Laura Benanti

Fellow musical theater nerds, rejoice: our queen, Laura Benanti, will be debuting a new show in San Francisco next week, “Tales from Soprano Isle.” Taking its name from Benanti’s joke that sopranos will soon be exiled to an island to make room for belters on Broadway, her new one-woman show promises to be as delightful, refreshing, and delicious as a pint of vanilla ice cream.

We recently spoke with Laura about her show, the power and perils of social media, and why The Sound of Music should be required viewing for all Americans.

PC: First of all, happy belated birthday!

Laura: Thank you! Thank you very much!

PC: How did you celebrate?

Laura: I went out to New Jersey and I spent my birthday with my family and my husband. It was really nice.

PC: That’s good that you had time to celebrate, since I’m sure you’re busy with preparations for your new show, “Tales from Soprano Isle.” What can audiences expect from this new show?

Laura: Well, they can expect some soprano music, both from classic musical theater and from artists like Tori Amos and Joni Mitchell; and then artists like Harry Chapin, who are decidedly not sopranos, but I am singing their songs in that vein. I like to have my concerts feel really relaxed, like people are just in my living room and I’m telling them stories and singing songs. I don’t like it to feel stuffy at all. There will be humorous anecdotes from my life and from this funny business that I’m in, as well as some of the most beautiful songs that I love to sing.

PC: What are some of the challenges in putting together a new show? How do you curate your songs and experiences?

Laura: That’s a great question. You would think there is a wide breadth of material out in the world, and there are infinite songs to choose from, but a lot of songs are songs that other people have sung, or are famous for [other people singing them]. Trying to find songs that I have sung on Broadway or I have some intimate connection to in some way, and then tying those songs in with a story that makes it feel like it’s not just one random segue after another: that’s the biggest challenge. But, keeping the feel relaxed— which is really what I want— I think helps, since not every story is going to flow perfectly into the next song; sometimes it’s just going to be an aside. Those are the types of shows I like to see, and I hope that my audience feels the same way!

PC: Do you feel as though you have a signature song?

Laura: Not really. I’m adding in some stuff from She Loves Me, which is the show that I just closed on Broadway, so I will be singing that. I’ve sung “Unusual Way” in every concert since I did Nine, and this is the first time I’m not singing it. I’m not singing “Model Behavior” [from Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown]. So, there are some fan favorites that won’t be in there. But I’m hoping to create some new favorites!

PC: You’ve had the hysterical concept of a “Soprano Isle” for a couple of years now. How did you come up with that concept?

Laura: It was in an improv moment. I was doing the bit about why I love musical theater—because when I turned on the radio, I didn’t hear any voices that sounded like mine— and I had a joke I wrote about a soprano museum, that would just be a hologram of Barbara Cook, singing a perfectly placed High C. And then one show, I was just going off, and I improv’d the joke about soprano isle, and it took off from there. And people really seem to like it. It’s something that’s been meme’d and gif’d, and I don’t really understand the words! But a lot of people have responded to it on social media, so I thought that would be a really funny title.

PC: That’s actually a great segue to my next question: Broadway fandom has really exploded in the last decade or so, thanks in part to the rise of social media. You have a fantastic presence on social media and have received a lot of attention for your hilarious and on-point tweets. Do you feel pressure to be “on” all the time with social media? Moreover, how do you navigate social media?

Laura: I actually just had a social media debacle this morning, where I tweeted something that I thought was funny— something along the lines of a conspiracy theory that the Kardashian/Swift feud is designed to keep us embroiled in mindless garbage when we should be concentrating on real things happening, or something along the lines of that. And I didn’t think too much about it, but I thought, “Okay.” And then so many people tweeted me that it was essentially racist, and that I was in some way insinuating that black people don’t know how to focus on more than one thing at a time. Initially, I was defensive, because that’s certainly not what I meant. I was thinking more of [the attack in] Nice and NATO and women’s health issues, which are by no means racial issues. But, at a really sensitive time, where Black Lives Matter and cops are being killed and there’s just so much tension, I realized you really do have to be careful with jokes on Twitter. When I started tweeting [years ago], it was a much less sensitive time. And as sensitivities have awoken and as issues have been raised, it makes it a more difficult minefield in which to be humorous. So I don’t feel a pressure to be funny, I find myself trying to navigate being funny and not offending people. Because I am not a comedian who is trying to stoke the fire and get people to pay attention to me at whatever cost. I’m an actress who is trying to express herself through humorous tweets. So, I ended up dialoging with a lot of people on Twitter this morning. And I understood where they were coming from. I heard their point of view. And if I offend a bunch of people, odds are they’re right! You know? And I’m happy to remove the tweet, and then discuss it and admit that I’m wrong. But, it certainly is something that I’m finding myself needing to be more mindful of. And then that does make me less likely to take comedic chances. But I’d rather be cautious and not offend than have a 140-character tweet that ultimately doesn’t matter and pisses off a bunch of people and hurts their feelings.

PC: It’s interesting that it has allowed opportunities for productive dialogue, though.

Laura: Yeah! [Previously,] I tweeted something about Black Lives Matter, and for literally over a week, every day, I was getting death threats from people in the KKK and people calling me a “white guilt bitch” and all of these crazy words. So today I felt a little like, “Ooh, alright. That was hard! And now this is hard!” But, if you choose to be political—and I was, in my support of the Black Lives Matter movement— I understand that you are going to get criticism for it. Where it becomes challenging is when you think you’re making a joke. And then that puts you in hot water, as well. But what I appreciated about today was that, though there were some people who were just awful and didn’t want to hear anything, there were a bunch of people who I had a really meaningful dialogue with, where I understood where they were coming from; they heard where I was coming from, so I appreciated that. And it felt like, “Okay, well there still are some people in this world and on Twitter who are willing to and wanting to educate and be educated.”

PC: There is humanity out there!

Laura: There is!

PC: One of my favorite videos that you’ve done is when you go into Times Square as Fosca from Passion, and it’s great because no one in Times Square gets it. So, what is the one piece of musical theater that you think every single American should know?

Laura: The Sound of Music. I really, genuinely feel like every single American should know The Sound of Music.

PC: That’s a good choice. I hope that many of them know it— it would make the world a better place. [Laughs]

Laura: Me too, me too! If Carrie Underwood can’t make them watch it, I don’t know who can.

Catch Laura’s new show “Tales from Soprano Isle” at Feinstein’s at the Nikko in San Francisco, from July 29-31. Click here to purchase tickets.

Make sure to follow Laura on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram!

Photo Credit: laurabenanti.com