Ben Platt describes himself as a extremely anxious particular person, however there’s one place that retains his nerves at bay: the stage.
Which may sound counterintuitive to most individuals, however Platt grew up within the highlight, and finds the immersive immediacy of reside efficiency soothing. His thoughts can’t spin an online of fear when he’s belting out “Maybe This Time” by Kander and Ebb, or “Ease My Mind” from his debut studio album, “Sing to Me Instead.”
“I love having a directive, and also the suspension of time when you’re performing and you’re forced to be present,” Platt says throughout a current interview. “It’s like my favorite thing. It’s kind of a drug.”
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Platt will likely be in his candy spot, starting Friday, for a 10-day engagement on the Ahmanson Theater. The live performance sequence, directed by Tony winner Michael Arden, is a West Coast extension of Platt’s 2024 residency at Broadway’s Palace Theatre, which featured a formidable array of visitor stars, together with Cynthia Erivo, Kacey Musgraves, Kristin Chenoweth and Leslie Odom Jr.
The L.A. exhibits, which really feel like a homecoming to Platt, will even embrace particular duets, however Platt is staying mum on simply who will be a part of him onstage. The shock is a part of the enjoyable. Platt cites Judy Garland and her Sixties CBS selection present as his inspiration “in terms of the way that she would share herself in her solo shows, and how she had so many famous collaborations and moments that she created with bringing in other singers she admired.”
Whereas the Palace present was extremely tailor-made to Platt’s third studio album, “Honeymind,” which was launched that very same yr, his Ahmanson gig is extra holistic, showcasing the full breadth of his profession, together with all three of his albums, his hit Broadway musicals like “Dear Evan Hansen” and his Netflix sequence “The Politician.”
“There’s really no project I can think of that won’t be represented,” says Platt. “It feels like a little jewel box of all the stuff.”
Platt has a boyish face and a tender, confident talking voice. In dialog, he’s type and centered, current and . At 32, he feels as if he’s reaching a brand new plateau in life. One by which he’s not precociously younger, however not but outdated — and all of the wiser for it. He married actor and singer Noah Galvin final yr. The couple thinks about having kids, however Platt fears he would by no means sleep once more with all of the fretting he’d do about his little one’s future.
That nervousness joins others: issue flying, an inclination towards hypochondria, and existential worries about happiness and success for himself and his family members. Platt touches wooden typically.
“At the center of it is the unknown,” says Platt. “The opposite of anxiety isn’t calm, it’s certainty. That’s why I love the controlled chaos of performing so much, because there’s adrenaline and there’s spontaneity and there’s feeling alive, but I know what the plan is. I know what’s expected of me. I know that I can deliver it and I know it makes me feel good to do it.”
“I want people to come to my shows. I want people to know the projects I’m doing. As a queer person, I want to share my marriage,” Ben Platt says. “But in a curated and safe way.”
(Christina Home / Los Angeles Occasions)
Platt can be pivoting in his use of social media to advertise his work and interact with followers. When he was youthful, he took a extra bare-it-all strategy, however he now sees nice worth in drawing agency boundaries round his non-public life.
“I want people to come to my shows. I want people to know the projects I’m doing. As a queer person, I want to share my marriage,” Platt says. “But in a curated and safe way.”
Platt admires the old-school thriller that stars of a former era loved, and seeks to emulate that as a lot as doable inside a contemporary panorama full of oversharing. Speaking about himself — on his phrases — onstage feels excellent.
Performing and singing for a residing isn’t precisely essentially the most secure career, and regardless of his fame, Platt remains to be on the whims of a altering and more and more unstable trade. He tapes auditions frequently, and tries to seek out good work amid stiff competitors. When issues really feel unsteady in that realm, Platt feels particularly grateful for his means to carry out solo residencies just like the one on the Ahmanson.
The exhibits trip the road between theatrical narrative and pop live performance, and match Platt’s uniqueness as a performer. Since he started appearing and singing as a baby, Platt has by no means been only one factor.
Because the son of movie and theater producer Marc Platt and philanthropist Julie Platt, Platt says he had a “comically liberal upbringing.”
“I consider myself hugely privileged and blessed to have grown up here,” Platt says of L.A., the place he attended the elite Harvard-Westlake Faculty earlier than finding out at New York’s Columbia College. He felt drawn to New York due to the theater, but additionally “to have a space to really form myself as a person, and find who I am as an adult and as an artist outside of the intensive community that I grew up in.”
Coming again to L.A. for the Ahmanson exhibits represents a full-circle second.
“It’s a circle that hopefully will continue for many years and change,” says Platt, knocking on wooden another time. “But at least for this chapter, it’s such a nice return.”
‘Ben Platt: Stay on the Ahmanson’
The place: Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave.
When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Thursdays; 8 p.m. Friday-Saturdays; 3 and eight p.m. Sundays. Dec. 12 to 21.
Tickets: Begin at $44.85
Contact: (213) 628-2772 or CenterTheatreGroup.org
Operating time: 1 hours, 40 minutes (with no intermission)
