In the halcyon days when Judy Garland performed at New York’s famed Palace Theater, it was, as Johnny Carson once put it, “bedlam.” Her outsize influence echoes to the present in Ben Platt’s new residency at the same theater, which he helped to reopen on Tuesday following a seven-year, $80 million dollar renovation.
Platt took inspiration from Garland—as well as her daughter Liza Minnelli—in constructing a one-man show that explores his life and career so far, from grappling with his queer identity in childhood to his explosive breakout with Dear Evan Hansen, and the many songs that have shaped him along the way.
Once his residency at the Palace wraps in mid-June, Platt will head off on a nationwide tour, including a two-night stop at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. That particular engagement isn’t random: Platt’s third album, the folk-tinged Honeymind (out on Friday), was recorded in Nashville, its 13 songs doubling as a diary of his life over the last two years. It’s no wonder, given he’s set to marry his longtime partner, the actor Noah Galvin, this fall, that most of the album’s tracks are about being in love.
From his dressing room shortly before his second performance at the Palace (for the first, he trotted out Kacey Musgraves as a surprise guest; last night, it was Kristen Chenoweth), Platt mused about the historic venue he’s currently calling home, his unabashedly autobiographical lyrics, and the unlikely Dear Evan Hansen song he’s including in his set.
Vogue: We’re catching you minutes away from taking the stage. Do you typically have any pre-show rituals?
Ben Platt: Yes, I have a warm-up with my voice teacher, Liz Caplan, for like 45 minutes to an hour. Sometimes it’s in person, but usually we go on FaceTime because she’s very in-demand. And twice a week I do PT, so I get prepped and needled and beat up and stuff. I eat a lot of protein, usually Dig [Inn], because it’s in Midtown. I also eat a bunch of protein bars and drink a jug of water.
Is that common for every show you do, to go through intense vocal warm-ups like that before each performance?
Yeah, that’s a major thing for me. Other than in Dear Evan Hansen, this is the most intense singing I’ve done consistently. But there’s always some variation whenever I sing. Parade wasn’t particularly vocally strenuous, so I’d do a half-hour version of it. But for this I do the utmost preparation to get as loose as possible so it can feel not so effortful.
