Laura Benanti on Her Journey From Broadway to Stand-Up With a Riotous One-Woman Show, ‘Nobody Cares,’ and Why Melania Remains One of Her Proudest Roles

Benanti performs at the Wallis in Beverly Hills this weekend and at South Coast Repertory Oct. 11.

By Chris Willman

Chris Willman

Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic

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Laura Benanti is out of the woods and into a thicket that is very different from her initial Broadway base: the world of stand-up comedy. Officially, “Laura Benanti: Nobody Cares” is a “one-woman show,” but she says the only reason she shies away from calling it stand-up at all is because she respects the people who practice that on a weekly basis too much to want to claim she’s mastered that craft as an interloper. But whatever the comedic equivalent of belting is, that’s a natural skill that Benanti is also turning out to have in her wheelhouse, as she carries the art of quip-riddled personal storytelling as well as she carries a tune.

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