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"Once upon a time, there was a girl who dreamed of being on Broadway."
That's how Laura Benanti's bio begins in the Playbill for "The Sound of Music"
-- and it's an apt opening for her self-described real life "fairy tale."
Three years ago, at the age of 16, she was playing Dolly Levi in Kinnelon High School's
production of "Hello, Dolly!" Scouts from the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn
gave her its first Rising Star Award.
Today, Benanti is starring on the Great White Way, playing the lead role, the unsolvably
problematic Maria, opposite Richard Chamberlain in "The Sound of Music."
"It boggles my mind," says Benanti, who only started acting professionally at
the age of 18 and who spent a year understudying the Maria role before she took it over.
"When I really sit down and think about the way my life has been for the last couple
of years, it truly amazes me. It's been miraculous."
On this Friday evening, 90 minutes before curtain time, Benanti is sitting in front of a
mirror in her dressing room at the Martin Beck Theatre. In jeans and a tank top, with
long, wavy dark hair, she doesn't look much like the Austrian postulant she plays so well
in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical.
As Benanti chats about her life, she rolls long strands of hair into tight pin curls,
fastens each one atop her head with a large bobby pin, then dons a tight brown nylon
skullcap. This is her nightly preparation for the short-cropped auburn wig she wears as
Maria Rainer -- who's sent from the convent to care for the seven mischievous children of
Chamberlain's Capt. Georg von Trapp, whom Maria falls in love with and marries.
On paper, the romantic pairing of this 19-year-old actress with the 65-year-old
Chamberlain seems ridiculously improbable, but onstage, the two pull it off.
And offstage, they seem to be mutual admirers.
"She's only 19, and she's just wonderful," Chamberlain gushed when he began the
collaboration in March. "She has a kind of maturity about her that's
astonishing."
Says Benanti, "If you want to talk reality, Von Trapp and Maria were at least 30
years apart [in age] ... And in terms of the two of us, we have a deep respect and love
for each other, and I think that translates. I don't know anyone who's been uncomfortable
watching it."
Benanti says that she and Chamberlain have grown so close that she's very sad the musical
will soon close, on June 27. According to a plan that was in place when Chamberlain took
over the Broadway role, he'll take the musical on a yearlong road tour. (Meg Tolin,
Benanti's current understudy, will play Maria.)
But, despite that sad goodbye, Benanti says "a lot of wonderful things are happening
for me."
One upcoming project is "Time and Again," a Broadway-bound musical based on the
Jack Finney time-travel novel, which was also turned into the 1980 movie, "Somewhere
in Time," with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour.
While doing "The Sound of Music," Benanti also took part in a recent five-week
"Time and Again" theater workshop.
"They hope to start rehearsals in December, so I'll be there with bells on,"
says Benanti, who now lives in Manhattan. "I play the Jane Seymour role, and I would
originate the role [on Broadway], which is extremely exciting."
It's exactly what Benanti dreamed about while she was growing up in Kinnelon, basking in
her favorite musicals, "Mary Poppins" and "Annie."
"My parents told me I literally wore out the tape of 'Annie.' I think they really
threw it away," Benanti says, with a laugh.
Despite her early passion for musicals, Benanti's mother, Linda -- a professional voice
teacher who's been Laura's vocal coach since she was 11 -- and her stepfather, Sal, a
psychotherapist and health counselor, wouldn't let her act professionally.
"I fought them tooth and nail about it. I cried and screamed and threw fits, but
fortunately, my parents wouldn't let me be a child
actor," says Benanti, whose biological father, Martin Vidnovic, is also a Broadway
actor. "So, I had all that time to sit in my room to be creative and develop an
imagination.
"They were afraid that I would lose out, that it's an unhealthy environment for a
child, which at times it can be," says Benanti (who has a 14-year-old sister, Mariel,
who does not act but is a "super soccer player").
After winning the Paper Mill's Rising Star Award, Benanti appeared in a couple of
productions there ("Jane Eyre" and "Man of La Mancha").
One day, Broadway casting director-producer Jay Binder called the Paper Mill looking for
someone to play Liesl, the eldest of the Von Trapp kids.
"They sent me, but I was little too mature for Liesl, so, they called me in seven
more times to be in the ensemble," Benanti says. "And
then, the last day, they said, `Why don't you read for the cover [or understudy] for
Maria?'"
The next day, Binder called her to say she'd won the role -- which amazed her, because the
other auditioners had had far more time to prepare. "I went in there not knowing
anything," says Benanti, who, at the time, was studying musical theater at New York
University. "They asked me to sing `The Sound of Music,' and I didn't know the words.
They were like, `You're the only person in the world who doesn't know "The Sound of
Music.'"
'
She understudied Rebecca Luker (filling in for her during a two-week vacation), and when
Luker left the show, Benanti auditioned and won the Maria role.
"They took the biggest chance that any producer has ever taken on anyone -- on
me," Benanti says. "I want to do them justice, because they've been nothing but
guardian angels for me."
In this physically demanding role ("I immediately lost five pounds when I took over
the role," she says), reviews for Benanti, who has a remarkably powerful voice, have
been glowing. Many critics have opined that when she and Chamberlain took over the lead
roles in March, they much improved the year-old revival.
During her six-month "grace period" between the end of "Music" and the
beginning of "Time and Again," Benanti plans to take some Shakespeare classes.
She's also auditioning for independent films and television projects.
"I would love to do some real good television, some substantial stuff," says
Benanti, who'll turn 20 next month.
