A first lady of theater
Star who spoofs Melania Trump brings cabaret with mom to S.F.
Laura Benanti is the comic actress who shows up periodically on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” to play Melania Trump. She’s got the pose, the pout, the slightly parted lips and the narrowed cateyes of the first lady down pat. But Melania aside, Benanti is best known as a Broadway star. She made her debut fresh out of high school as Maria in “The Sound of Music,” won a Tony Award playing Louise to Patti LuPone’s Rose in “Gypsy” and sang one of the greatest show tunes of all time, “Vanilla Ice Cream,” in the superb 2016
revival of “She Loves Me.”
This week, Benanti plans to revive “Vanilla Ice Cream” when she brings her cabaret act, “The Story Goes On,” to Feinstein’s at the Nikko from Friday to Sunday, May 11-13. The timing is perfect for Mother’s Day weekend: Benanti will share the San Francisco stage with her mother, Linda Benanti, in a show they describe as a musical journey through a mother-daughter relationship.
Laura Benanti may be the star in the family, but it’s her mother who has the more plaintive, complicated story to tell. A former Broadway performer (“Brigadoon”), Linda Benanti was divorced from Laura’s father, actor/singer Martin Vidnovic, when Laura was just 2 years old. Linda Benanti went on to marry psychologist Sal Benanti, moved to Kinnelon, N.J., and opened a voice studio. She quit acting and had a second daughter, Marielle, in 1986.
Up until “The Story Goes On” tour, which opened last year, Linda Benanti hadn’t sung professionally in 35 years.
“She had to be coaxed a little bit,” Laura, 38, says by phone from Boston, where she and her mother were visiting Marielle, a school psychologist.
“I think ‘encouraged’ is the word,” Linda, 68, chimes in. “Only because it had been so long.”
Because she was a vocal coach all those years, Linda says, she never lost her chops. “I build voices. I’m a technician. I had to stay in shape as a teacher.”
“She sounds incredible!” her daughter interjects.
Linda: “When we sing together, we blend really well. We have that genetic imprint.”
Laura: “We really do sound similar. Sometimes when we’re singing a duet, if you close your eyes you wouldn’t know who is who.”
The Benantis are lyric sopranos, with exceptionally broad range. They first performed “The Story Goes On” in May 2017 at Feinstein’s/54 Below in Manhattan. The show got its impetus in May 2016, when New York producer/journalist Steve Schonberg presented a tribute to Laura, “We Love Her: A Celebration of Laura Benanti,” at Feinstein’s/54 Below. Several Broadway performers appeared, and Schonberg persuaded Linda to join the bill.
“Not only was it a magical moment seeing them perform together, it was a gift getting to hear Linda sing,” Schonberg said. “A talent of Laura’s caliber requires an equally strong co-star. Linda is exactly that — a real star.”
At that tribute, Laura recalls, “My mom and I sang ‘Children Will Listen.’ And the buyers and bookers at 54 Below recommended we put an act together.”
They started rehearsing when Laura, who is married to startup entrepreneur Patrick Brown, was pregnant with her first child. Their first public concert was about three months after Laura’s daughter, Ella, was born.
Laura never saw her mother perform onstage as a child, “but one of my most vivid memories is being 5 years old and coming up the stairs. I could hear my mom singing, and when I got to the top, she was standing on her tiptoes with her arms outstretched — as if she were singing to an imaginary audience. At the time, I didn’t know the word ‘longing,’ but I could sense what it was.”
Because her mother put her career aside so early, Laura sees “The Story Goes On” as a thank-you gift for that sacrifice, “an opportunity to just repay her a fraction of what she gave me.”
“My hope is that my mom will take this beyond just doing shows with me, and get back into the business in a holistic way,” Laura adds. Will that happen?
“It would be lovely,” Linda says. “And I’m at a time in my life when I could do that, and it wouldn’t have any ill effect on anybody. We’ll just have to see.”