Atw - Downstage Center

Broadway's newest Gypsy Rose Lee, Laura Benanti, talks about playing the title role in "Gypsy" both last summer at City Center and again this year on Broadway, including her thoughts on formidable author and director Arthur Laurents, as well as a few facts about the real Gypsy and Rose that didn't make it into the musical. Benanti also discusses her vocal training under the tutelage of her mother (who unlike Rose expressly forbid young Laura from turning pro in her youth); her big break understudying Rebecca Luker in "The Sound of Music" -- and playing a romantic role opposite someone 45 years her senior; how she handled her first professional disappointment, at the fate of the musical "Time and Again"; the serious injury -- and nasty rumors -- that plagued her during the revival of "Into the Woods" and nearly derailed her performance in "Nine"; and what it was like, after playing many period roles, for this Jersey girl to play a girl from New Jersey in "The Wedding Singer". Original air date - May 30, 2008.