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Laura Benanti Album Release – “Laura Benanti”

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Laura Benanti Album Release – “Laura Benanti”

October 23, 2020

ony® Award-winning actress, singer, author and activist LAURA BENANTI today releases her self-titled debut album Laura Benanti.  Available everywhere now from Sony Music Masterworks, the 11-track album features the versatile artist performing a mix of covers both classic and contemporary, breathing new spirit into everything from modern pop songs to jazz-influenced ballads.

With her self-titled full-length debut, Laura Benanti constructs a diverse and dynamic solo statement, working alongside award-winning producer Matt Pierson (Brad MehldauJoshua RedmanPat MethenyJane Monheit), arranger Gil Goldstein and a bevy of seasoned musicians on the album. Through and through, the process highlighted every side of Laura’s voice.

“We definitely talked about the songs as characters,” she explains. “As an actor, I’m used to becoming and embodying other people. So, it was important for me to play the role each song required. I drew on different shades of my voice and personality to tell different stories.”

The first story comes to life on the album’s lead single, a cover of the Jonas Brothers’ “Sucker” released earlier this year.  Above swinging piano, electric guitar, and finger-snaps, she transports Jonas Brothers’ comeback smash to a smoky thirties jazz haunt with sultry and sizzling soul.  Laura paired the release of the track with an accompanying music video featuring workers on the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis as part of a moving tribute celebrating family and essential workers – watch here.  Proceeds from the track benefit FoodCorps—an organization which ensures kids who rely on school food get fed during the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Laura transforms Selena Gomez’s “Lose You To Love Me” into a bold ballad backed by resounding strings and a powerhouse vocal performance.  “When I heard Gil’s arrangement, I was so moved by it,” she recalls. “I was able to personalize the story for myself. I can hear the evocative nature of that memory in my voice, and I hope other people feel the same way.”  She drew inspiration from Rosemary’s Clooney version of “Don’t Worry ‘Bout Me” to track her own tender take and carefully chose “The Party’s Over” from the 1956 musical Bells Are Ringing as a gorgeous denouement to the album.  Elsewhere, accordion pipes through her reimagining of Rufus Wainwright’s “Cigarettes & Chocolate Milk,” which she relates to as devilishly conjuring “my twenties when I got in some trouble.” She also delivers a “fun interpretation of the anti-love song” by flipping Paul Simon’s “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover” on its head.

 

LAURA BENANTI – LAURA BENANTI
ALBUM TRACKLIST
1. Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk
2. Someone You Loved
3. What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?
4. Sucker
5. The Boy From…
6. Go Slow
7. Don’t Worry ‘Bout Me
8. 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover
9. Lose You to Love Me
10. Wives and Lovers
11. The Party’s Over   

 

Laura Benanti Links:


ABOUT LAURA BENANTI
In the midst of an illustrious career spanning Broadway, film, and television, Tony® Award-winning actress, singer, author, and activist Laura Benanti now brings a longstanding dream to life as she gears up to release new solo music with Sony Music Masterworks.  With Broadway credits ranging from the My Fair Lady revival and Steve Martin’s Meteor Shower to She Loves Me, Laura garnered a Tony® Award in the category of “Best Featured Actress in a Musical” for the 2008 production of Gypsy—among five career nominations to date. Meanwhile, her performance in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown would be honored with the Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for “Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Simultaneously, she enchanted audiences on the small screen, appearing on YoungerSupergirlNashvilleThe Good WifeNurse Jackie, and more in addition to films including WORTH and the upcoming Here Today.  Laura recently released a book for moms entitled “M is for MAMA (and also Merlot): A Modern Mom’s ABCs” available now on Amazon.