Review Roundup: LAURA BENANTI: NOBODY CARES Opens At the Minetta Lane Theatre

Audible is presenting an encore engagement of Laura Benanti: Nobody Cares, starring Tony Award winner Laura Benanti, live at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre.

Laura Benanti: Nobody Cares premiered in February with three sold-out shows at the Minetta Lane Theater and returns this spring for 18 performances only.

Laura Benanti: Nobody Cares, which was recorded live at the Minetta during the February performances, will also be released globally on Audible on Thursday, May 9 as an Audible Original, extending its reach to millions of listeners around the world.

Tony Award-winning performer Laura Benanti is bringing her new comedy show back to the Minetta Lane Theatre. Be part of the live audience as the Broadway legend debuts all-new music, created with music director Todd Almond, and shares her hilariously bumpy journey from ingenue to recovering ingenue. Annie Tippe directs.

Joining Laura onstage as her “Inner Demons” are Barrie Mclain and Chelsea Lee Williams (vocalists), with Todd Almond (music director) and band members Carl Carter (bass), Clayton Craddock (drums), Edward W. Hardy (violin), Ann Klein (guitar), and Daniel A. Weiss (keyboards/guitar). The creative team includes Japhy Weideman (lighting design), Connor Wang (sound design), dots (Scenic Consultant) and Garrett Kerr (production stage manager). Technical supervision is by Hudson Theatrical Associates’ Sean Gorski with general management by Baseline Theatrical’s Jonathan Whitton.

Read reviews for the production!

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Steven Suskin, New York Stage Review: Benanti originated Nobody Cares as an Audible project in February, recording the show over a sold-out three-performance run at the Minetta Lane. Now, Audible has brought her back for three additional weeks to celebrate the audiobook release and as an opportunity for her fans to see her perform the show live. Or at least as many fans as can pack the intimate Minetta. Yes, this project was apparently devised as audio entertainment; but Benanti, in person, knows how to work the room and the stage. 

Frank Scheck, New York Stage Review: If I were to tell you that the new show at the Minetta Lane Theatre can be described, in the lead performer’s own words, as “a middle-aged white woman sings songs and talks about her life,” you’d probably not be terribly excited. But when that middle-aged white woman is Laura Benanti, that’s a different story. In her hilarious evening being presented under the auspices of Audible, the multi-talented performer who’s appeared in no less than eleven Broadway show taps into her inner comedian with giddy abandon. She proves that the show’s title, Laura Benanti: Nobody Cares, is an oxymoron.

Elisabeth Vincentelli, The New York Times: That Benanti is a terrific all-around comedienne won’t surprise those who have seen, say, the musical “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown,” her impersonation of Melania Trump on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” or videos like the one in which she reimagined the obsessive Fosca from Stephen Sondheim’s “Passion” as a Times Square mascot. Now she’s exploring new-ish terrain in an evening-length show, directed by Annie Tippe, that stands out from her past solo projects by relying more on narration and embracing a confessional mode. The general approach is a little reminiscent of Sherie Rene Scott’s “Everyday Rapture,” from 2009 (though that piece had more songs, and they were covers).

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