How awesomely fantastic is Laura Benanti?? I was so excited when I got my Ravinia advance ticket order form and saw her name on the list - and for $10?? An absolute steal. (Plus we got free parking!)
Her concert was last weekend, in the Gordon Bennett Hall at Ravinia (the mainstage was occupied by the band "Chicago" and while I had a vague Peter Cetera-style idea of their songs in my head, at the time I couldn't think of a single one. And since I can never ever suffer in silence, I mentioned it to my friends, and we went trawling on itunes for Chicago songs. Now, we've been wandering around with songs like "What kind of man would I be" and "Glory of Love" in my head. Awesome. So maybe next year, I'll actually BE at the Chicago concert, but this year I was geeking out in the Gordon Bennett Hall.)
I knew Laura could sing, from seeing her in Gypsy (City Center and Broadway) and Women on the Verge. But I didn't know she was so hilarious. First off, she said "Nerd alert!" since we were all in there seeing her instead of being with the hip-er (or hip replacement-ier, judging by the hoardes of aging rock fans on the lawn) Chicago fans. She was surprised by how savvy we were as an audience, since we knew theater related stuff and could follow her anecdotes without lots of explanation. She, too, had been a theater geek since birth, practically, having a big time obsession with Stephen Sondheim (she even dressed up as Fosca for Halloween when she was a kid, eschewing the slutty nurse/slutty princess/slutty whatever costumes that would have gotten her more candy). Since all of us were also clearly geekishly inclined, we all ate it up with a spoon.
Anyway, she sang her face off - and it was a little bit of everything - broadway, rock, and an awesome medley that was started off, in all seriousness with "Single Ladies". Loved it. I kind of want to be her when I grow up. I hope Ravinia has her back soon, on a bigger stage and for more than $10 for tickets. It was a beautiful evening.
(Sidebar - being a total geek, I had bought a bottle of bright blue nail polish called "Model Behavior" and it tickled me, since it was the name of Laura's killer song in Women on the Verge AND it sort of went with one of her costumes from the show. So I had big plans to give it to her, but did not get the chance, alas, alas. So now I have a bottle of bright blue nail polish...)
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