Tony Nominee Q&A with Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin

Benjamin adapted Pirates of Penzance for Goodspeed Opera House, wrote Cam Jansen with Laurence O'Keefe, (produced by TheatreworksUSA), wrote lyrics for Sarah, Plain and Tall, and The Mice, won a Kleban Award and a Jonathan Larson Foundation grant, and is a member of ASCAP and the Dramatists Guild of America.

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And BroadwayWorld.com loves you! Congratulations, how'd you get the news?

Nell: We slept late because we've been working on the cast album and we slept in because we were up till 3am working the night before so we slept in and turned all of our phones off and when we woke up and turned them on it was just bling bling bling bling, text message, voice mail, text message.

Larry: We thought if there were 4 or 5, it would be condolences, but it was 9, 10, 11, 12, 14 messages wow! It kept going…

Nell: We danced around, and cursed like happy sailors and the day was off!

When is the cast album due out?

Larry: In about a month, our mix is due in about a week…

What else are you guys working on in between celebrating the nominations?

Larry: We're working on Sarah, Plain and Tall, which is touring at the moment with Theatreworks, but there's an adult version as well that we started developing a few years ago that a number of theatres are interested in as well. So that's ready to go pretty much and we're very proud of what it is.

Nell: We're very proud of that, and have started working on another new project as well. I'm working on Pirates! Which is an adaptation of Pirates of Penzance now running thankfully to Goodspeed. The next good news that we got after being nominated was that Papermill, which is a great theatre, was going through with the rest of our season and our show!

Speaking of projects, what's the latest with the Bat Boy film?

Larry: I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there will be a Bat Boy movie one of these days because I still think that it's a great story and now it's being done all over the country and all over the world now. I think that a story as bloody and peculiar will find its way.

And now let's find our way back to Legally Blonde… Just how long ago did you begin working on it?

Larry: Well, we've been with it for a long time. We auditioned for it for about a year, and then worked on it for 3 years. 

Nell: Really it was fun, and the people so great.

Larry: There's something about the show that working on it and those involved manage to become nicer to each other, because the lead character of the show manages to achieve everything through kindness and that rubs off on everyone working on it.

Nell: It's world domination through kindness and empathy and everyone kind of reflected that on the show.

Larry: There's also a very serious message beneath the fluff about letting go of your pride, and what you think are your best features because they may actually be holding you back. It's also important to work on yourself, and make yourself better. Don't be complacent and then you cannot fail to prosper and that's a good lesson to us.

Nell: We were so lucky to get to work with Jerry Mitchell who was just inspiring and great to work with and pushing for excellence at every step of the way. He was like a golden age impresario.

Larry: He was never satisfied and he taught us to never be satisfied. Are you sure that's the best song? Are you sure that's the best spot? etc. As you can tell we're still in 5^th gear right now, but it made us better.

Nell: He's largely the reason the show is the way it is, so we couldn't be more grateful.

Photo by Craig Brockman