Laura Benanti’s solo comedy show Nobody Cares is a NY Times critics pick and one of Audible’s top choices for best of 2024….huge considering their extensive platform. Tune in and see why this Tony award winning Jersey girl never ceases to amaze us with her many gifts in front of the camera and on stage. After knowing this lady for a while we are happy to report that Laura in real life is one of the most kind, beautiful inside and out souls around. Scroll on down and check our photos spotlighting her cool personal style wearing family hand-me-downs and vintage. She fills us in on her passion for writing, comedy, a device that has really helped her skin, and those bare essentials (including a very special shout to our founder tina turnbow).

The Bare Magazine: Your show Laura Benanti: Nobody Cares is one of Audible's pick for best of 2024! Can you give us more reasons to tune in and why you wanted to create this show?

Laura Benanti: It's actually one of Audible’s best picks! Not the only one, but it is throughout their entire platform which is audiobooks, performances, music, the list goes on. So to be chosen out of hundreds of pieces from various genres is an honor!

It's a huge accomplishment for me, as writing and performing your own comedy show, while very fun, also feels really vulnerable. It's autobiographical and addresses a lot of personal things through the lens of a sense of humor. I’m most proud of how many different kinds of people attended and responded so favorably to the show. If you go onto the Audible platform, you can download and listen to the show. I'm also feeling really excited because there are plans in the works to film it as a comedy special. Which is my dream!

Bare: Loved seeing you as Melania on Colbert - he is such a fan! You must feel charged up to create more for next year.

LB: We haven't really discussed the plan right now. I'm not sure the direction the show is going to take! I love that group of people so much. We've now been working together for eight years and it really does feel like a family.

Bare: Of all your many talents, is comedy one of your favorite gifts to explore? and why?

LB: I spent so much of my life playing wide eyed ingenues, and while I always found humor within those roles (or at least I tried to) I never got to be the one who got a ton of laughs.

The way I cope with this world is through the lens of a sense of humor. But it took a while for people to think of me as funny. To be at a phase of my life where I'm trusted with other peoples’ comedy, and also get to perform my own, is really gratifying.

Bare: You performed Laura Benanti: Nobody Cares on stage, which was a NY Times Critic’s Pick. Is your favorite place to perform in front of a live audience?

LB: The thing I love about theatre is the high wire act! You can't stop and start again. No one calls "cut." There will be no show like the one you were experiencing ever again. There will never be an audience made up of the exact same people and a stage full of the exact actors, ever again. And I think that's really special.

Bare: You possess amazing bone structure, like Melania. You said it comes from your “Eastern Block” genes. Can you share some skincare secrets or treatments you've been into lately?

LB: Ha! Thank you! I've been using NIRA and I really see a difference. Also, an anti-aging cream from Hers.

Bare: You and your mom have performed together - can we expect more from you two? How has she been a great source of inspiration for you?

LB: We are going to be back at 54 Below in March! No one has shaped my life more than my mother. My sense of humor, my outlook, my voice, who I am as a mother, and a friend. She's the most incredible woman I will ever know.

Bare: We loved shooting you in all your vintage gems! Are you a fan of repurposing clothes and pieces that belonged to those near and dear?

LB: Yes! I love anything with history. Fast fashion can be fun, but there's nothing like wearing your grandmother's coat. The jacket I'm wearing in a photo from our shoot belonged to my late grandmother, who I was very close to. When she and my grandfather were raising their family they had very little money. He saved and saved and bought her a fur (don't be mad! It was the 40's!) and she wore it until it was in tatters. After he passed away, my mother took the remaining pieces and had them blended with wool. When I wear it, I feel like she's hugging me.

Bare: Please list your top five Bare Essentials (they can be anyone and anything).

LB:

1) meditation

2) moving your body every day

3) a SAD light in the winter

4) time away from devices

5) getting your makeup done by Tina Turnbow!

photos/makeup/editor in chief: tina turnbow

hair: kimberly gueldner

laura wears her own vintage and vintage from cure thrift

shot at cure thrift nyc