The Broadway and television star — and Tony Award winner — who learned to perform on Kinnelon stages.
From a Kinnelon stage to a Tony.
Born July 15, 1979 · Actress · Singer · Tony Award winner
Before the Broadway marquees and the television roles, Laura Benanti was a Kinnelon kid in the school musical. She grew up here, graduated from Kinnelon High School, and learned her craft on local stages — proof, still on our own streets, that a world-class career can begin in a small-town theater.
Kinnelon
DocumentedLaura Benanti was born on July 15, 1979, and raised in Kinnelon. She graduated from Kinnelon High School in 1997, and she honed her craft close to home — in Kinnelon High School productions and at The Barn Theatre in nearby Montville, one of the country's oldest continuously operating theaters. The training ground was local; the talent traveled.
Broadway & beyond
DocumentedFrom those local stages Laura Benanti built a celebrated career across Broadway, film, and television, earning a Tony Award along the way and becoming one of the most recognizable performers to come out of Kinnelon. We keep to the public record here, and celebrate the part of the story that belongs to this town: that it started on a stage a few minutes from home.
At Kinnelon High School she performed in Fiddler on the Roof (Golde), Brigadoon (Fiona), and Hello, Dolly! (Dolly Levi).
For her Hello, Dolly! she won Paper Mill Playhouse’s first-ever Rising Star Award — as a junior, in 1996 — and has called it the start of her career.
She grew up inside her mother’s voice lessons in the family’s Kinnelon home.
Selected Broadway roles. She earned five Tony nominations in all, winning in 2008 for Gypsy.
| Year | Production | Role | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | The Sound of Music | Ensemble → Maria von Trapp | Broadway debut; understudy who went on as Maria at 19 |
| 1999–2000 | Swing! | Performer | Tony nomination |
| 2002 | Into the Woods | Cinderella | Tony nomination |
| 2003 | Nine | Claudia Nardi | |
| 2006 | The Wedding Singer | Julia Sullivan | |
| 2008 | Gypsy | Louise | ★ Tony Award — Best Featured Actress in a Musical |
| 2009 | In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play) | Catherine Givings | |
| 2010 | Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown | Candela | Tony nomination |
| 2016 | She Loves Me | Amalia Balash | Tony nomination (Best Actress) |
| 2017 | Meteor Shower | With Amy Schumer & Keegan-Michael Key | |
| 2018–2019 | My Fair Lady | Eliza Doolittle |
Television
Film
Voice
On The Late Show with Stephen Colbert she has performed a recurring comedic impression of First Lady Melania Trump (2016–present; reprised March 2025).
| Award | Work | Year | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tony AwardBest Featured Actress in a Musical | Gypsy | 2008 | Won |
| Tony Award | Swing! | 2000 | Nominated |
| Tony Award | Into the Woods | 2002 | Nominated |
| Tony Award | Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown | 2011 | Nominated |
| Tony AwardBest Actress in a Musical | She Loves Me | 2016 | Nominated |
| Drama Desk Award | Gypsy | 2008 | Won |
| Drama Desk Award | Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown | 2011 | Won |
| Outer Critics Circle Award | Gypsy | 2008 | Won |
| Outer Critics Circle Award | Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown | 2011 | Won |
| Paper Mill Playhouse Rising Star Award | Hello, Dolly! (Kinnelon High School) | 1996 | Won |
Broadway Records — recorded live at 54 Below.
Self-titled debut studio album (Sony Music Masterworks) — classic and contemporary covers.
Singles
Broadway cast recordings
Co-authored with Met Opera soprano Kate Mangiameli, illustrated by Helene Weston.
#SunshineSongs
When COVID cancelled school musicals in 2020 — sparked by her mother Linda’s disappointed Kinnelon voice students — Laura invited students nationwide to post their cancelled-show songs and tag her. #SunshineSongs went viral (millions of views, thousands of submissions) and grew into #SunshineConcerts streamed to seniors and children’s hospitals.
★ Feature
A Kinnelon voice teacher of 35+ years — and an accomplished performer in her own right.
Linda Benanti (née Wonneberger) is a graduate of the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and was a professional lyric soprano before raising her family.
Her stage career included Broadway in Brigadoon; the national tour of The Odyssey with Yul Brynner; off-Broadway as The Girl in The Fantasticks; and regional leads including Guinevere in Camelot, Marian in The Music Man, Anne in A Little Night Music, Nanette in No, No, Nanette, and Sarah in Guys and Dolls.
Her last professional performance was the 1981 revival of Brigadoon. She stepped back from the stage to raise her two daughters in Kinnelon and opened a voice studio there — teaching for 35+ years and building a renowned local studio.
She was Laura’s first voice teacher, and Laura credits her with her vocal technique — including the high C in She Loves Me — saying her mother knows her instrument better than anyone.
After decades away from the stage, Linda returned to perform alongside Laura in the mother-daughter cabaret “The Story Goes On” (premiered 2017 at Feinstein’s/54 Below), which they toured nationally, including South Orange’s SOPAC in New Jersey.
A later mother-daughter show, “Mothers Know Best,” won a 2025 BroadwayWorld Cabaret Award for Best Duo Cabaret Show (54 Below) and played the Westport Country Playhouse in 2026.
The Kinnelon thread runs both ways: it was Linda’s disappointed Kinnelon voice students who prompted Laura to launch #SunshineSongs in 2020.
Linda teaches at the Linda Benanti Voice Studio in Kinnelon.
Further coverage, beyond the cited sources below.
“A world-class career that began on a Kinnelon stage.”
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Sources
Compiled from publicly available sources; where accounts differ, the most widely documented version is used. Community corrections welcome.
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