Laura Benanti: 54 Below Interview

Laura Benanti is a Tony Award winning actress whose superb acting skills are perfectly complimented by her golden vocals. From theatre to television (most recently of NBC's Go On, starring Matthew Perry), it has been a joy to watch Laura's career rise since I met her in 2001 at the Drama Department Christmas party. I am thrilled to have the opportunity now to interview Laura for "Call Me Adam."

New York is ecstatic to have Laura back as she gears up to bestow her talent upon 54 Below with an all new show In Constant Search of The Right Kind of Attention from May 20-25. In this show, Laura fuses theatre standards with pop music and original songs. This is surely going to be an evening to remember! Click here for tickets!

For more on Laura be sure to visit http://www.laurabenanti.com and follow her on Facebook and Twitter!

1. Who or what inspired you to become a performer? My mom and Julie Andrews.

2. Who haven't you worked with that you would like to? Julie Andrews.

Laura Benanti singing at 54 Below, Photo Credit: David Gordon3. You are about to perform your new show In Constant Search of the Right Kind of Attention at 54 Below from May 20-25. How did you come up with the title and song selection for the show? The title was my friend's suggestion and my music director and arranger Todd Almond and I chose the music.

4. What are you looking forward to most about performing at 54 Below? What do they offer that another venue might not? I'm looking forward to the intimacy of that room. There is something so special about sharing a space like that with an audience.

5. What made you want to work with Todd Almond as your musical director? I had done a reading of one of Todd's shows a few years back, and then a demo of a piece he is working on with Sarah Ruhl. I'm such a huge fan of his work. He is also one of the loveliest people I have ever met.

Laura Benanti at 54 Below, Photo Credit: David Gordon6. What do you hope audiences come away with after seeing the show? I hope they enjoyed themselves and come away feeling like the know me. And hopefully like me!

7. This show is going to be recorded for a live CD. What excites you about this recording? I love live recordings. It will be my first album so I like the thrill of it being live.

8. What have you learned about yourself from being a performer? That I'm neurotic.

9. What's the best advice you've ever received? Be still. Behold. Be true.

10. If you could have any super power, which one would you choose? The one where I end up with tons of money that I get to spend on fun things and also give away to people who need it. Whatever super power that is.

BONUS QUESTIONS:

Laura Benanti on FX's "Starved"11. In addition to theatre, you have starred in two series of your own on television, FX's Starved and most recently NBC's Go On. What do you get from your television work that you do not get from your theatrical ventures? Money.

12. Favorite way to spend your day off? Walking in the park and laying in the grass.

13. Favorite skin care product? Clarisonic skin brush.

14. Favorite way to stay in shape? Pilates.

More on Laura:

Laura Benanti was honored with the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award, and a Drama League nomination for her portrayal of "Louise/Gypsy Rose Lee" in the Patti LuPone revival of Gypsy. In addition to Gypsy, Laura has also lit up the Broadway stage in The Sound of Music ("Maria," opposite Richard Chamberlain), Swing! (Tony nomination: Best Featured Actress), Into The Woods ("Cinderella;" Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, LA Ovation and Tony nominations), Nine ("Claudia," opposite Antonio Banderas; Outer Critics Circle, Drama Leauge nominations), The Wedding Singer ("Julia Sullivan"), In The Next Room, or The Vibrator Play (Lincoln Center), Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown ("Candela," Lincoln Center; Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards; Tony and Drama League nominations). In City Center's Encores series, Laura has delighted audiences in  Gypsy ("Louise"), Wonderful Town ("Eileen"). Laura also dedicates her time to causes various benefits such as  The Secret Garden ("Lily"), Hair, Pippin ("Catherine") and Children of Eden. Off-Broadway audiences have been dazzled by Laura in  Why Torture Is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them, Time and Again ("Julia," MTC). She has peformed at LA Opera in  A Little Night Music ("Anne") and Williamstown in  The Winter's Tale ("Perdita," opposite Kate Burton). On the big screen, Laura has been seen in such films as  Falling for Grace ("Princess Alexandra"), Take the Lead. Television fans know Laura from Open Books (CBS), Life on Mars (ABC), Eli Stone (ABC), Starved (FX). Laura is also featured on numerous recordings including several Broadway cast recordings, as well as "NEO," "The Stephen Schwartz Album" and "The Maury Yeston Songbook." Laura studies voice with her mother Linda Benanti, a former Broadway performer. She was raised in Kinnelon, NJ with her sister Marielle, by her mother and father, Dr. Salvatore Benanti. She is married to actor Steven Pasquale. 

Video Interview about The Weight of Water: with Playwright Myra Slotnick and Director David Drake

In my latest video interview, Call Me Adam sat down with Playwright Myra Slotnick and Director (Actor & Playwright) David Drake to talk about Myra's newest play The Weight of Water about choices and survival in the days following Hurricane Katrina. Playing from May 12-16 at The Producers Club - Crown Theatre in NYC (358 West 44th Street, between 8th & 9th Ave), The Weight of Water is one journey you'll want to take. Click here for tickets!

Part 1: Working together

Part 2: Bringing The Weight of Water to New York

Part 3: Working with the cast of The Weight of Water

Part 4: Choices

Video Interview with the cast of Let My People Come

Adam Rothenberg and the cast of Let My People Come (left to right: Gavin Roher, Mariel Blatt, Diego Rios, Christie Dabreau, Haley Selmon, Brian Craft)In this special video interview, Call Me Adam strips down with the cast of Let My People Come: A Sexual Musical to find out what gets their gears grinding with this flirtaciously fun show playing at The Underground Lounge (955 West End Avenue at 107th Street) in NYC every Friday night! Click here for tickets and be sure to follow the show on Twitter, Facebook, and at http://www.lmpcparty.com!

Lucie Arnaz: Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts Interview

The daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Lucie Arnaz has had an extremely diversified career spanning over 45 years in show business. She made her Broadway debut as "Sonia Wolsk" in Neil Simon-Marvin Hamlisch-Carole Bayer Sager-musical They're Playing Our Song for which she won the Theatre World, LA Drama Critics and Outer Critic's Circle Awards and has gone onto star in numerous Broadway and Off-Broadway shows as well as dazzling audiences in both film and television.

Now Lucie is continuing on with her recording career as she comes to Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College on Saturday, May 18, 2013 at 8pm with her show "An Evening with Lucie Arnaz" where concert goers can hear new arrangements of favorite standards by Gershwin, Ellington, and Porter, as well as Latin tunes made famous by her father and showstoppers from her Broadway career. Showtime is 8pm. Click here for tickets!

For more on Lucie be sure to visit http://www.luciearnaz.com and follow her on Facebook!

1. Who or what inspired you to become a performer? Not ever going to be sure of that. One would have to guess though, right? My folks were in the biz and I saw that they loved what they did for a living. If they sold fruit and loved it, I might be a produce manager now.

2. Who haven't you worked with that you would like to? The list is very long. And most have died. But, for the living, we can start with Ron Howard, Steven Soderberg, George Clooney, Kathleen Marshall, Hugh Grant...........and on and on.

3. You are going to be performing at the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts on May 18. What excites you about this upcoming concert? I rarely get a chance to perform my shows close to home and my friends are always asking when they can see me. Now they will have no excuse!!

4. What do you hope audiences come away with after seeing your concert, "An Evening with Lucie Arnaz"? A happier outlook on their lives.

5. With a wide range of material to choose from, how did you decide which material you wanted to perform for this concert? Each show is a bit different from the last. I look at the audience I will be playing for (demographics sometimes matter- often they don't), the money matters only in the size of the band I can provide and the size of the band then decides which of my 200+ charts I will do. Some songs work well with a small band and other arrangements really need the full complement. This is going to be the trio show and so it's a cozier feel. The material is always drawn from the same well, though. GREAT SONGS. Or, at least, what I believe is a great song- fairly new or a vintage standard. Stick with the best songwriters and great stories and you cannot go wrong. Plus, I am an "arrangement whore." A good arrangement of a song can send it into a whole new stratosphere.

6. Your latest album Latin Roots, is a celebration of your Latin heritage. What made now the right time to put this CD together? I had been asked to produce an evening celebrating the music of my father and his Desi Arnaz Orchestra for the 40th Anniversary of Lyrics and Lyricists Series at The 92nd Street Y in NYC. My musical director and I had been discussing the idea of a "Latin Roots" CD for years as we do so much of this music in our shows. It seemed criminal not to have that kind of a CD available for sale in the lobby if we were going to produce this big evening tributing my roots. SO, we produced both at the same time!!!

7. What is your favorite part of the creative process in putting an album together? The first time I hear the charts played by the full orchestra is pretty fabulous. When you get the head phones on in the booth and start signing to those amazing tracks. And hearing the completed, mixed CD for the first time is bliss.

8. You starred in one of my favorite Broadway shows They're Playing Our Song. Looking back, what was the best part about starring in this show?  That's an almost impossible question to answer. There was so much good about that experience. Working with and learning from the genius that is Neil Simon. Working with and learning from the genius that was Marvin Hamlisch. Laughing harder than I can remember at Robert Klein's humor. Being directed by Robert Moore. Watch Carole Bayer Sager create. I am a lyricist, too, and that was a dream come true for me right there. Being a star in a hit Broadway show. That's like being Cinderella at the ball every night. NOT being nominated for a TONY. There was more love and compassion sent my way because of that than if I had WON. And, best of all, I met my husband Larry Luckinbill, during the run of that show and we have been married 32 years now and he gave me three beautiful children and two delightful stepsons.

9. What do you get from your theatrical ventures that you do not get from your music or television/film work? A sense that, after working very hard and giving it my all during rehearsal, that I did it all by my self once the curtain goes up. There is great pride in that. It's a big wire act that thrills me to no end. It is also a huge amount of work to DO eight shows a week for an extended period, to keep showing up every night and giving 100%. That is something to be very proud of. 

10. You were the executive producer of two specials about your parents Lucy and Desi, the I Love Lucy 50th Anniversary Special and Lucy & Desi: A Home Movie. What was it like going back through all the pictures and footage for these specials? I directed Lucy & Desi: A Home Movie, too, and in both cases, it was a very healing experience. I encourage everyone to try it, whether they have famous parents or not. Walk a mile in their shoes and see what choices you might have made if you had been in their place at the same time. It's a very forgiving experience.

Lucy Arnaz, Desi Arnaz, Desi Arnaz Jr, Lucie Arnaz, Photo from www.luciearnaz.com11. What do you miss most about your parents? Boy, you ask the big questions, don't ya? I feel like I should have a book deal and a big advance at this point for these answers!!!!! I miss now what I missed when they were both alive. I miss them being there.

12. What is like to be the daughter of two people who made such a big impact on the world of entertainment? A gift. A bonus. A pain in the ass.  A huge responsibility. A challenge. An inspiration. A reason to search for the real truth in life. SO, ultimately, a blessing.

13. What have you learned about yourself from being a performer? That I can be a light in this world.

BONUS QUESTIONS:

14. What's the best advice you've ever received? 

From my father: "There must be a way."

 From my mother: "Be good to Lucie." 

 From Unity: That we are all ONE and the power of God is within ME.

15. If you could have any super power, which one would you choose? I have not got a clue. Can I see the list of super powers? Is there a power to bring peace to all nations? If so, that would be my choice.

More on Lucie:

Lucie Arnaz's other New York stage credits include Lost in Yonkers, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Grace and Glorie; in the London premiere of The Witches Of Eastwick; in the Coconut Grove Playhouse premieres of Once Removed and A Picasso; in national tours of Seesaw, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, Social Security and My One And Only (Sarah Siddons Award); and in regional theatre productions of Wonderful Town, Master Class, Cabaret, The Guardsman, Annie Get Your Gun, I Do! I Do!, Educating Rita, Vanities, and Mack And Mabel.

She has appeared on television in The Lucie Arnaz Show, Sons And Daughters, The Black Dahlia, The Mating Season, Who Gets The Friends?, Washington Mistress, Death Scream and six seasons of Here's Lucy; on the big screen with Neil Diamond and Sir Laurence Oliver in The Jazz Singer (Golden Globe Nomination), Down To You, Second Thoughts, Billy Jack Goes To Washington, The Pack, Wild Seven and has lent her voice to the new animated fantasy about the NY Yankees, Henry And Me.

Lucie has performed the opening number on the Academy Awards (1981) and at The White House several times. She was Executive Producer of the I Love Lucy 50th Anniversary Special (Emmy nomination), and Lucy & Desi: A Home Movie (Emmy winner 1993). She recorded her first album for Concord Jazz, "Just In Time," and her newest CD, "Latin Roots," is a celebration of just what the title says. Lucie has been traveling the country and the world with her various concerts for over 20 years. With her brother, Desi, she manages Desilu, too, LLC. With her husband, actor Laurence Luckinbill, she manages five grown children.

Classic Moments with Julie Halston

I have interviewed Julie Halston several times over the past four years, but for the first time, I was invited into her New York City apartment to talk about her one-woman show Classical Julie, which combines classic Halston rants with brand new material, including her inimitable take on Ibsen and other highly literate writers.

This month long show will be part of Jim Caruso's Broadway at Birdland (315 West 44th Street, between 8th & 9th Avenue) every Monday in March: 4, 11, 18, 25. Showtime is 7pm. Click here for tickets!

For more on Julie be sure to visit http://www.juliehalstononline.com and follow her on Facebook and Twitter!