What’s it like to be a Broadway performer living in Connecticut and commuting to the theatre in the city? Well, WSHU’s All Things Considered host Randye Kaye sat down with two veteran Broadway actors, Norwalk native Raissa Katona Bennett and Fairfield County’s very own Arbender Robinson. They share a delightful conversation that covers the struggles of a successful acting career in theatre, their special projects off the boards, and their upcoming concert to raise funds for The Lockwood Mathews Mansion Museum in Norwalk.
WSHU: Right in our own listening area in Connecticut and Long Island, Broadway stars are among us. Balancing life on the stage with life off stage or trying to, and lots of time commuting between the two on LIRR or Metro North, and contributing their talents to the local areas where they live. And not just performing talents, but altruistic talents as well. So today, we'll be talking to two of them, Raissa Katona Bennett and Arbender Robinson, and both will be appearing on December 11 at Broadway at the mansion. The mansion is the Lockwood-Matthews Mansion, and all proceeds will benefit that mansion and museum, and their educational and cultural programs. So welcome to both of you.
WSHU: It's so great to have you here. Now, Raissa, so you and I have known each other here and there for years, and we're friends with a lot of the same people. And you appeared on Broadway in many things, but probably most well known as one of the Christines in Phantom of the Opera. You're a known cabaret star. I'm going to grill you about your career first, and then our Arbender. I'm going to grill you. So tell us a bit about your career and how much of it was spent commuting from Norwalk or Milford. I think you used to live in Milford?
RKB: Yeah, that's when I first met you, when I was living in Milford. I have to say, during my Broadway years, not a lot of time was spent commuting from Connecticut, because at that point I had a tiny little apartment in Manhattan. And then also in Brooklyn, actually, come to think of it, I started out in Brooklyn. But over the years, it's a decent amount of time spent on on Metro North. I don't mind it, because the line dead-ends at Grand Central. So if I fall asleep, I can, I can wake up there,
WSHU: You're not gonna miss your stop.
RKB: Yeah, no, Arbender had a lot more time commuting than I have in the last several years. Yeah.
WSHU: Okay, so tell us about some of the highlights of your career and your cabaret work as well.
RKB: Well, certainly the highlight was the first time I got to take the bow as Christine. And that's one of the things I talk about in the concert we're doing Thursday night. That was absolutely. I would say, probably one of the other highlights was taking a bow. Well, actually not taking a bow, singing the last several bars of Cats because we were standing all the way downstage. My cat was Jellylorum, and I would be all the way on the very apron of the stage, standing with my arms straight in the air, singing, “A cat”. And it represented a lot for me, because I was wearing a unitard, and I was nice and tiny. And previous to that, I had weighed over 200 pounds, so getting to be standing on the lip of the stage singing “A cat, wearing a unitard and being a size two was a kind of a culmination of everything Arbender doesn't know that about me.
AR: I just learned it,
RKB: Yeah!
WSHU: I just learned that, too. I never knew that.
RKB: Yeah, yeah.
WSHU: Do you put that in your cabaret work? That story?
RKB: I don't believe that one is in there, but, you know, I've been working on, I'm actually have three shows in my head right now, and one of them is, is more stories from, from beyond, the Broadway grave, so to speak.
WSHU: Yeah. All right, thank you. And we'll get back to your offstage life in a minute. Arbender, tell us about yourself and some of the highlights of your career. One of which I love is that you were the first African American ever to play Marius on Broadway in Les Mis.
AR: Yes, yes, yes. I'll say this, the career, when you look at it on paper, some people say it's quite impressive. For me, I didn't realize until I paused many years later and looked back at the career, what I had actually done so the Broadway shows, Hairspray, Hair, Little Mermaid, Ragtime, Book of Mormon, Lion King, Beautiful, The Carol King Musical, Les Mis, Shuffle Along, In Transit. Some of those were original cast, the original cast of Beautiful, The Carole King Musical. I did the last Ragtime revival. So there are all these things that I did, that I accomplished in cast albums that I'm on. And when you're in that rat race just doing the work every day, you don't pause enough to sit back and say, Holy smokes. What have I accomplished? What have I done? Because it's all just a dream. So now that I'm at this stage of my life, this stage of my career, I'm able to pause and reflect and look and say, Holy smokes. And being the first African American to play Marius on Broadway, and being the only African American to play Prince Eric in The Little Mermaid on Broadway. These are things that I was like, wait, what? I wasn't even aware enough in the moment to realize what that meant or what that was, but I'm so honored that that's my journey.
WSHU: It's so funny, because I think when we accomplish something, part of us goes well, if I accomplished it, maybe it wasn't that big a deal.
AR: True, true, true.
WSHU: I have two books that were published. And when I first got the publishing contract for the first one, like, oh my god, I'm going to be a published author, and then it's done, you're like, Oh, well, I did it. Maybe it's not that special.
RKB: By the way, the great books, I have them both.
WSHU: Thank you.
RKB: I particularly love the audiobooks because I get to listen to you.
WSHU: Oh, thank you.
RKB: Yeah, that is true. I remember when, when we first made it onto Broadway, my husband at the time, and I said to his mother, Just we thought we were going to struggle more. And she said, “Excuse me, don't you remember the times that you called and said we don't have any food in the cabinet, and that you went to the restaurant where you used to wait tables to get a meal because you didn't have any food. And I was like, Oh, yeah. But you know what? We were having such a good time. We were so driven and so passionate. We didn't realize until we got there. I was like, yeah, those are some really hard years. I remember walking through the streets in New York without a warm enough coat. And those were colder winters back then.
AR: Much colder winters back then; we've been spoiled lately.
RKB: Back in the 1800s, you know?
WSHU: And that's the thing with glamorous careers, and, you know, it's radio, but I'm doing air quotes, is that, you know, when you're living in it, people don't realize that Broadway stars can be on unemployment between shows, and it's a very blue-collar business. But you're both in Connecticut now, so tell me how you got from living in tiny apartments in New York to making the choice to live a Metro-North ride away.
AR: Oh, so my journey, I'll be completely honest with you, taxes. That's what happened. I was living in the city, and then I kept moving further and further north, trying to find something that felt like it matched how hard I was working. And then when I found Fairfield County, I realized, oh my goodness, these taxes aren't that bad. They're not that bad compared to New York City so or Westchester County. So I was able to buy a house, and then it made the most sense to me to go into the city every day and do the work and do the rat race. And then hop on that Metro North and then travel home for 45 minutes, answer my emails, make any calls I need to make, and then step off of that train and go home to my house with my lower taxes and enjoy the peace and look around me every day and say, Oh, wow, I worked really hard for all of this, and I feel like this reflects how hard I worked for so long to get here. So I would say it was, it was taxes and my ego, wanting to be surrounded by something that matched the struggle, that matched the moment where I was like, this jacket isn't warm enough for the winter. Or match the moment where I said, Listen, “I don't know what I'm going to eat tomorrow, but I'm just on this, this rush, this this struggle, this race to achieve these goals and achieve this dream. So that's how I ended up in Fairfield County in Stanford, and I love it so much.
RKB: Well, I am happily married to a doctor, Dr Garrett Bennett, who's just, who's just retired a couple years ago at very young too, though he sings very well and he writes songs. So it's nice. It's a nice combination. We were looking to expand. We had an apartment. We still have the same apartment, actually, in Tudor City, a tiny, little like 600-square-foot apartment, and his medical books are starting to overrun the apartment at one point. And we were like, geez, we really need to have a slightly bigger place. And the apartment right next door to us opened up, and we thought, well, maybe we can buy that and break through the wall, but the combined maintenance for that Co-Op would have been so high. I said to Garrett, “You know, I think we should look at buying something small in Connecticut, because our money is going to go further, and we can then do all the things we like to do on the weekends that take us hours to do in Manhattan. Like, you know, if you want to play tennis in Manhattan, you had to go sign up for… This is a first-world problem, right?
You had to go sign up for the court, like, three hours ahead and this and that. So I said, we can actually have a more balanced life, and it's all about the balance, right? So that's how we ended up in Milford. And our friends, Sean Moniker and David Friedman, lived in Norwalk, and they said, Why don't you buy Norwalk? Say, Well, my money goes a lot further in Milford. At that time, I was born in Norwalk, though I lived here till I was 10. I wanted to come back, and so we ended up living in Milford, and that's when I met you, right? And we loved it. It was perfect. It had to be on Metro North. It had to be within an hour and a half of the city, or else we knew we would never use it, because we had friends who had places out in the Hamptons. It's like it would take three hours on the Jitney to get there on the weekend. It had to be a place, a train that you could take the dogs on at that time, Amtrak, you cannot bring dogs. So that was, that was our whole mindset. And then in 2016 where we were living, said we could no longer grill on our deck. And it really upset us. So you. We had a friend…
WSHU: It’s the little things that make big changes.
RKB: But do you know why that did? Because we love to have company, and there were many friends that are not as fortunate as we've been. And in the first year we lived in Milford, out of 52 weekends, we had 50 weekends of multiple guests, like people come up on a Thursday, leave on a Friday, get a whole new set of guests. I was constantly changing sheets. And what did everybody want to do, go out on the deck, grill, have a glass of wine, and look at the view, and just go, AHHH. And so it really changed our lives. So we had a friend who said, Well, why don't you buy a house? And no one can tell you what you can't do. And I swear, oh, oh, we forgot we could actually afford to buy a house, because we've always lived below our means. Arbender and I were talking about this on the way up, about, you know, saving and scrimping and just saving for the future. So we found a place in Norwalk, right? Actually, within a half mile of where both sides of my family started their lives in America. Amazing. Half a mile, my dad used to work in this neighborhood as a young kid, and our nickname for the house is The Grill.
WSHU: I love it. I love it. I love it so and we all make these choices. And I remember doing a production of Nunsense, and I was the Connecticut equity girl in the show, and everyone else had done the show 1000 times with Danny Goggin, but I was the only one who had a house, kids, and a family. Because whatever profession you choose, there has to be a balance between on-stage and off-stage life.
And you find it in different ways. We find it in different ways. And for some, it means getting out of the city. And I think what many people don't realize when they go see a Broadway show, which is a big deal because, you know, it's incredible that a star like you guys, or a cabaret, whatever you're doing in the city, performing, you have to catch a train. You know, you take off the makeup, and you take off, and you, you're the vacation swing for Book of Mormons right now,
AR: Right now, correct!
WSHU: So you just did this last week, right? So what's that moment like when you're done? You get off stage, and now you have to make this transition from being, I'm on stage. Everybody, take your bow and your little unitard, and then, and then, and then. What happens after the lights go down?
AR: Well, you know, there are a few things that happen. The first thing that happens is you frantically depend on the train schedule. You frantically rush to get out of costume and get out of makeup, get those things done right away. You rush to the stage door, sign what autographs you can, and then you begin that trek to Grand Central. You know, if it's a spring, if it's a summer, you can run to Grand Central. If it's cold and rainy, you're going to take the train to get to Grand Central. And then once you get on that train, it really just becomes that 45 minutes of decompression time, so that when you get home, you can shower and just relax like that. That adrenaline has worn off in that, so I use it as that decompression time. But I also love to keep my eyes and ears open and just hear everyone on the train talking about the various shows that they've seen and what that experience is. And that's when, like, my heart gets really full, because I'm like, I was just part of providing that kind of experience for someone who, you know, whoever had seen my show, and they're probably on a train or in their car having these conversations that will go on as I'm simply trying to decompress. And every once in a while, if someone did see the show that I was in, I might lean over my seat and say, oh, did you see that show? Oh, what did you think of it? Oh, can you turn to the page with the cast? I just want to see who's in the cast. And I say, Oh, wait, that's me. And then it just becomes like this fun moment that we can share on the train. Yeah. And then they ask, you know, where are you going? What are you doing? And I say, Well, I'm headed home. Oh, I thought you all would go out and party and do all the I was like, no, no, no, no, no. I'm gonna head home. I'm gonna shower and then, you know, do everything that I can now to prepare for the show tomorrow. So that little reminder that everything we do before and after the show directly reflects what we're able to do in the show that night. So absolutely so that train ride is really special in that way.
RKB: I know, for the five years that I did Phantom on Broadway,
WSHU: Five years!
RKB: Five years to the day, I never, I didn't touch an alcoholic drink. I never went out, because you basically had one day off to do, because we were on the hit show schedule. We had just Monday off. We didn't have a Sunday matinee, so we had one day to do your laundry, to clean your apartment, to do your shopping. This is before, Fresh Direct, you know, before things are not that old, but still. You had, you know, you, you, you. Make a decent living as a Broadway actress, but it's unless you're really a star, you're not getting it, and even some of the stars, you're still not getting big bucks.
WSHU: It’s not like a movie star, here's a million dollars.
RKB: Still got it. It's a salary. Yeah, any salary you got to save for the future. It's a wonderful thank you, God, working job every night that I crossed that stage, and before I went up the five flights of stairs to my dressing room, I would just look out and say, Thank you, God, you know, because there are 1000 girls lined up behind me that would love to be in my shoes. And I never, you know, thought about anything else and then how blessed I was to be where I was when I was but being prepared for that opportunity when the time came, but you really, especially with something like Phantom and Le Mis, that's what I call Uber singing. You know, you have got to really be on your game. And anything that you do that takes away from that is irresponsible. People paying tons of money to come see you. Saved up maybe their first and only Broadway show, and you'd owe them that experience.
WSHU: I love that, and I love that connection to the audience, because they say a bad night at the theater is better than a good night of the movies, or something like this. So we may have listeners who or whose kids want to be Broadway stars. There are a lot of them in Connecticut and Long Island, and so you've given a kind of a primer about working hard, having a life balance, making it a priority, staying in touch with the gratitude and the joy of what you're able to do and the reality of life in the theater. You both also have, as I have in my career, morphed into other areas to continue to be performers. So Raissa, you talk about your cabaret work, and there's always a show in your head, and I've seen your cabaret, and it's wonderful. We were talking before about you're making a shift to what now, and what advice do you have for the young?
AR: Wonderful, wonderful, great question. So I am slowly making this shift from performing on stage to working in talent management on the other side of the table. So I am working as a talent agent for FSC Talent, Fire Starter Entertainment. Raissa is one of my clients.
RKB: I’m very lucky.
AR: And I think as actors are coming up in training and moving to the city and beginning of that career, if they can sit alongside an agent for even a day, or sit alongside a casting director for even a day, and see what's happening on that side of the table and how we're putting these pieces together, and how we're submitting and pitching and pushing and all the things that we're doing this side, it would completely change your outlook. And I think it would allow actors to sit back and just do their craft. Because there are all these little things that we worry about that I'm now learning you have no control over, and they just take up brain space, because they aren't things that even matter when it comes to casting and putting those shows together, like you think that your audition has to be perfect, wrong, or you think that you have to sing the perfect song wrong, we just want to hear. How can you take this song and make this song kind of work so that we can hear what your instrument does in this musical style, and then when we call you back, we're going to tell you exactly what to sing. Or when you get to a work session, we're going to tell you exactly how the music director wants you to do it. But we just want to see you do your craft, and see you do your work, and kind of go from there having that clarity. Now I wish I had it 20 years ago, because who knows what my career could have been, so…
WSHU: So tell me about the benefit and where the money's going.
RKB: Well, the benefit is to fund all of the programs that are provided for by the Lockwood-Matthews Mansion.
WSHU: And what do they do?
RKB: Well, they do a lot of cultural outreach, seniors with children, and of course, there's a Stepping Stones Museum there, and there is the actual mansion itself, where the docents bring you through to see all of the beautiful rooms that have just been restored. They've just finished doing $25 million restoration. I'm not exactly sure, but my connection to the museum or to the mansion was that when I was a little girl, it was overgrown, and it was slated for demolition because they wanted to put Route 7 through there. So my parents and I talk about this in our show, we were part of a small grassroots movement that helped to save it, that fought it, and as a little kid, I was there every weekend for a long time, helping to clear out all the trash and the overgrown weeds. I was saying I couldn't see anything but the third floor because I was very little. I was like 5,6,7. We moved away from Norwalk when I was 10. So I never got to see what it was like restored, until we went in a couple of weeks ago.
AR: And it's beautiful.
RKB: Oh God, it's incredible. We can't wait. So to think that, you know, during that time, during the 60s, now I'm dating myself, but during the 60’s…
WSHU: Where we've lived, we haven't aged.
RKB: I was very little in the 60s, but nonetheless, you know, urban renewal, that was like the dirty word. They were taking things down willy-nilly and without any regard for what was happening. They were getting rid of the mansions, the Gilded Age mansions in Newport and on Fifth Avenue, and this Civil War era mansion was slated for demolition as well, and it really took a lot for people. This is when landmarking started to really become important. The neighborhood I live in, in New York City, Tudor City, they wanted to demolish that. Helmsley wanted to demolish that. So it takes, you know, it takes a village, a strong, mighty village, to say these things are precious. And since then, the mansion has become a centerpiece for so many, so many things in our city. And that's where Pride in the Park is. You know, it's every year. There's so much that starts there. I couldn't begin to tell you
WSHU: Yeah, and the Stepping Stones Museum is fabulous. And they have, they have cultural outreach and all kinds of programs. And so I understand the benefit is sold out, but the money is going to go. And also, people can go to the Lockwood-Matthews Mansion website and see how to donate and how to volunteer and do all those things so and it's going to be an amazing evening with the two of you.
RKB: We can’t wait to sing together.
WSHU: The other thing I want to ask you about briefly is when you're talking about life balance. You each have causes that are near and dear to your heart. Of course, WSHU is one of them. Thank you.
RKB: Yes. Sustaining member, my husband and I.
WSHU: We appreciate it. You're sustaining membership. Thank you. But I want to hear about your well, Raissa, as long as you're talking, that you foster dogs, and how about that? And then our vendor talked about your autism awareness.
AR: Wonderful.
RKB: My husband and I rescued our first dog, literally, a couple of days after 911, and we were sitting there watching the smoke, and he said to me, Are you going to stop touring now? It kind of put life into perspective. That was when that whole balance started to really come. He's like, you know, all of a sudden, whoa. And I said, Yeah, can we get a dog? And so we started our journey, and we got our first dog, Brandy, and she was a rescue. And it's a long story, and it's on my website. I actually write about it.
WSHU: What is your website?
RKB: https://www.raissakatonabennett.com/, and there's a page that says Dog Blog, and you can read about the whole beginning of it, because it is a long story. But basically, we got very involved with dog rescue, and just since the pandemic, Garrett and I have fostered over 33 dogs, not at the same time, and placed far more than that, because I also do adoptions counseling and home visits and whatnot, and education, teaching people about dog nutrition. I've taken a deep dive. It's, it's, it's kind of frightening, actually. So if you want to know anything, just write to me about it, and I can tell you all about that. But it's, it's a cause. It's very near and dear to our hearts. And honestly, I've had to rearrange my balance because people are getting to know me now, oh Raissa does dog rescue. Oh, Raissa is an actress. So I'm like, Yeah, this is my avocation. This is my vocation. I'm passionate about both, yeah,
WSHU: So I want to thank you both so much, Arbender Robinson, Raissa Katona Bennett, Broadway stars. But there's so much more to those Broadway stars than what you see on the stage. They will present Broadway at the Mansion on December 11 to benefit the Lockwood- Lockwood-Matthews Mansion and all the wonderful programs there. And thank you so much for joining me today.
