Benanti made her Broadway debut as an ensemble member and later as Maria von Trapp in the revival of The Sound of Music. She was Tony-nominated for her roles in Swing! She soon moved to Kinnelon, New Jersey , with her mother and stepfather Salvatore Benanti, a psychotherapist , whose name she took and whom she refers to as her father.
Benanti remembers being "very serious" and "a bit of an ugly duckling " as a child; she was intensely interested in musical theatre , saying she "came out of the womb as a year-old". She was particularly interested in the music of Stephen Sondheim at an early age and distanced herself from other children. She auditioned for the show's producers and was considered too mature-looking to play Liesl, but, after several call-backs, was signed at the age of 18 to play one of the nuns and to understudy Rebecca Luker as Maria.
Benanti played the role for two weeks while Luker was on vacation, and, at 19, took over the role when Luker left the production. As do others, I believe that had she opened in the show, Benanti would have been an overnight sensation. In , Benanti appeared in the Broadway revue Swing! Benanti can be heard on the original cast albums of each of her Broadway roles, as well as compilation albums of Stephen Schwartz and Maury Yeston.
She participated in a studio cast recording of Rodgers and Hammerstein 's Allegro , which was released by Sony Classics in February A songwriter and guitarist, Benanti has written songs privately since at least the early s; [ 5 ] in , she said that she was working on a folk-rock solo CD, though "Musical theatre is my first love[ I'm working on it. During a mid-performance pratfall in Into the Woods , Benanti fractured her neck, herniating two discs directly onto her spinal cord and cutting off spinal fluid , a condition that sometimes leads to paralysis.
She said, "I had a serious injury and there was absolutely no way I could have done the show. I tried to. I tried to go back and do it but I physically couldn't. Eight months after her initial injury, Benanti was rediagnosed and received surgery that could have damaged her voice but was successful, though as of she still experienced neck pain and myelopathy. Three weeks after undergoing spinal surgery, Benanti started previews in March for the Broadway revival of Nine , in which she played Claudia, a movie star who inspires Guido, a director played by Antonio Banderas.
