Variety: After five years of focusing on TV, Laura Benanti (“Supergirl,” “Nashville,” “Nurse Jackie”), the fan-favorite actress with a burgeoning digital presence and a Tony Award for her 2008 performance as Louise in “Gypsy,” is back on Broadway in “She Loves Me,” Harnick and Bock’s 1963 jewel-box musical. The Roundabout Theater Company revival, in which Benanti plays the part that gave Barbara Cook her signature tune, has earned some good buzz on the way to its March 17 opening night. She talked to Variety about what got her back on the boards.
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I love how Benanti says she always knew she would work in theatre because she wanted to "have [her] heart beat at the same time as like 1,000 other peoples’ hearts." As much as I want to go into film and television, I know that I will never not do theatre because I can't imagine my life without that interpersonal syncopation that comes from working backstage. In high school, alumni who went on to become professional actors would often come back to visit our theatre department and talk about how their experience at the school had guided their careers. All had worked in both theatre and film, and when asked how they made the decision to enter the film industry rather than continue in theatre the reply was always, inevitably, "I didn't." Not a single one could say that they had found more success in one than the other, that they knew which they would pick if they had to choose, that they knew which direction their career would most likely lean in the future. There seems to be this popular misconception that once an actor moves from the film to the theatre industry, they do so permanently, with no intention of looking back. This is simply not the truth. Film and theatre are two different animals, and to compare them and choose between them on the basis that one cannot love both is impossible. One can love both, and the fact that Benanti did not allow her work in Nashville and Supergirl to bookend her career on the stage just goes to show how valid and necessary both are to the careers of all involved. Whatever her future may hold, Benanti has found a resiliency through which to make the best of both worlds, and that will carry her far beyond anything she may anticipate.
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