You may have seen her appear in her hilarious take as Melania Trump on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, or on Broadway in one of her standout performances, and now fans will have a chance to see Tony winner—and Montclair resident—Laura Benanti perform original songs at two fundraisers this month for the Kamala Harris campaign.
Benanti will reprise her impersonation of the former first lady while hosting the September 25 event at City Winery in New York City. She and a host of other Broadway stars are set to perform numbers that showcase the music of composer Miranda Ferriss Jones, also of Montclair, a musical theater creator who has worked closely with Benanti over the past several years.
Broadway’s Nasia Thomas (Six, The Last Five Years), Morgan Dudley (Jagged Little Pill), Miki Abraham (Shucked), and Khaila Wilcoxon (Six) are also set to take the stage.
“These two benefits are mostly all Miranda’s music,” says Benanti. “And it showcases how prolific Miranda is, that we’re essentially singing 24 songs within the span of one week that Miranda has written almost entirely by herself. And then, in combination with me for one song and then three songs with Rich Edelman. What’s amazing is that some of the Kamala songs have been written fairly recently and back-to-back.”
In the second fundraiser on September 30, Spiral Bound, a show based on the poems of Richard Edelman that celebrates women’s stories, will be performed at Racket in New York City. Written by Ferris Jones, the event features Benanti, Lorna Courtney (& Juliet), Eleri Ward (Florence Welch’s Gatsby), Khaila Wilcoxon (Six), and Sandra Okuboyejo (Hamilton). The show will be followed by a dance party to keep the party going.
Both shows are co-creative-produced by Benanti and Miranda.
“What’s kind of always drawn Laura and I together is this focus on creating a collective of women who are also really driven by activism. It feels like now they’re more needed, and more relevant than ever and so we’ve been drawing on these incredible women who are in these shows for workshops and development of these projects,” says Ferriss Jones. “When we asked them to come on board to perform in these shows, the resounding yes was really strong. It’s also the first time that Laura and I collaborated on a song, and she’ll be singing it, which is amazing.”
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