Top 25 Laura Benanti Quotes

I think that every therapist that I know, including my dad and my sister, have their own issues. But that empathy is what makes them good at their job.

I was always a little adult. Even as a little kid, I just couldn’t understand why I was surrounded by all these kids. I took things very seriously.

I think we’ve become a TV culture, where we forget the live performer in front of us can see us. I think there is a self-centeredness that happens. There’s nothing more important than what you are doing in that moment. So, unless it’s an emergency, put your phone away.

Usually, in musical theater, if you sing operatically or if you sing in a legit style, you’re the heart of the show. You maybe get to be moving and do dramatic stuff, but it’s very rare to be that funny.

Most people don’t even get to be on TV, so I got to be on TV a bunch of times… I feel so lucky that I get to go back and forth between television and theater.

I do think musical-theater actors can get a bad rap, and I see why. There is a certain slickness – there’s nothing better than an amazing musical, but an okay musical can be one of the worst times you’ve ever had.

I grew up loving musicals. My mom had records of original cast recordings, and one of them was ‘She Loves Me.’ I wore that thing out singing along to Barbara Cook when I was eight years old.

I love doing concerts. For me, it’s the favorite thing I do. I get to communicate with the audience in a direct way.

That’s all TV acting is. Like, let me find my mark and seem like I’m still acting. Sometimes they’ll put sandbags there, but then it’s even funnier because you’re walking and you’re, like, stepping into sandbags, so now you look like you’re having a seizure.

I think that people are most comfortable when they can put you in a box – and that’s very easy to do that when someone can put you in more serious roles. I’m not blaming them for that – it’s just up to me to show people what I can do.

I’ve worked so hard since I was 18 years old, and I’d hate for the memories to be boiled down to being a Melania Trump impersonator.

I try to give the appearance that I have it all together and that I know what I’m talking about, but at the end of the day, I think I might be full of crap.

I was a little girl who grew up idolizing musical-theatre stars.

Well, I’m grateful for all the experiences that I’ve had.

I was not a fan of the Bush administration, as I think many of us were not.

Of course I wanted an agent from the time I was like 5, but my mother was like, ‘No, you’re going to be normal, you’re going to go to school, you’re going to get good grades, you’re going to play soccer, and if you do well, if you keep your grades up, you can do one community-theater show a year.’

I was pregnant, and, like, ‘Being a mom’s going to be easy!’ And now I’m like, ‘Great.’

It’s always fun to play someone who is a little off. Normal is a little boring.

When I was 5 years old, I was coming up the stairs, and I saw my mom standing there, singing ‘A Quiet Thing’ a cappella, and it was such a differentiating moment for me. I realized that we are separate from each other – she has dreams and goals.

I am not so secretly a comedian. I write a lot of my own material if you’ve seen videos I’ve done. I write jokes.

I’m very grateful for social media. I think it has shown people my true nature, and through that has come a book deal, and I think it certainly contributes to people’s view of me as a person with a sense of humor, which is only helpful in my industry.

If you can hear music, you can hear the musicality of the way someone speaks. It’s easier to nail down the way that they talk. So much of it is listening, just like in acting. If you’re listening, you pick up the nuance of why a person behaves the way that they behave.

I actually enjoy Britney Spears. Not as a singer but as a performer. I just enjoy watching her. I think, ‘You are so brave.’

Television can be a little tricky in terms of finding roles that feel fully flushed out, which is why I love being in the theater so much, because the roles tend to be really on the page.

I feel like comedy is important, and I think political satire can be really important.