There’s no love misplaced between She Loves Me lovebirds, Laura Benanti and Zachary Levi.
Though they shared the Broadway stage in a profitable and Tony Award-winning 2016 musical revival, Benanti made it clear in a brand new podcast interview that she was by no means a fan of Levi, who on the time was a profitable TV star from NBC’s Chuck and on his method to film stardom because the title character in DC’s Shazam! “I by no means appreciated him,” Benanti informed Eric Williams on his That’s a Gay Ass Podcast. “Everyone was like, ‘He’s so nice!’ And I used to be like, ‘No, he’s not. He’s sucking up all of the fucking vitality on this room. He desires to mansplain everyone’s half to them.’”
Directed by Scott Ellis and choreographed by Warren Carlyle, the Roundabout Theatre Company manufacturing starred Benanti and Levi reverse Jane Krakowski, Gavin Creel, Byron Jennings, Tom McGowan, Peter Bartlett, Nicholas Barasch and others. The story centered on two store workers, performed by Benanti and Levi, who, regardless of being constantly at odds with one another at work, are unaware that every is the opposite’s secret pen pal.
Benanti didn’t mince phrases by claiming that Levi, “actually sucked everyone in along with his, like, dance social gathering vitality. Like, ‘We’re doing a dance social gathering at half-hour.’ I used to be like, ‘Good luck. Have enjoyable.’”
The dialog then turned to Creel. The beloved Broadway veteran died in September on the age 48, following a quick battle with a uncommon and aggressive type of most cancers, metastatic melanotic peripheral nerve sheath sarcoma. His demise got here as a shock to each the theater and leisure communities, leading to an outpouring of affection and heartfelt tributes from New York to Los Angeles and in all places in between.
Zachary Levi, Laura Benanti, Jane Krakowski and Gavin Creel pose collectively through the opening evening festivities for She Loves Me at New York’s Studio 54 on March 17, 2016. Levi, Benanti and Krakowski all obtained Tony Award nominations whereas the present gained for excellent revival of a musical.
Theo Wargo/Getty Images
During an Instagram Live slightly greater than a month after Creel’s passing, Levi claimed that his former co-star’s demise from a “turbo most cancers” was as a result of COVID-19 vaccine. “You higher imagine that, with the whole lot in me, I imagine that if these COVID vaccinations weren’t compelled on the American public, that the theaters weren’t being pushed and leveraged…,” he stated earlier than trailing off, suggesting the 2 have been linked. His submit, titled “Trump, Triage, Corruption, Covid and the potential finish of the world,” fell below hearth from performers who instantly jumped into his feedback part to slam his idea.
Benanti additionally discovered it offensive. “To use his reminiscence for his political agenda and to observe him attempt to make himself cry till he had one single tear, which he didn’t wipe away, I used to be like, ‘Fuck you endlessly,’” the veteran actress stated on the podcast, seen within the under clip.
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Levi for remark.
Jonathan Groff, Laura Benanti, James Corden, Jane Krakowski, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Zachary Levi and Danielle Brooks carry out through the seventieth Tony Awards at New York’s Beacon Theatre on June 12, 2016.
Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
