Every election season is more bearable when there’s someone there to do a really good impression of one of the key players. The high watermark is, of course, Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin, but Tuesday night, Stephen Colbert unveiled a new candidate for the throne: Laura Benanti as Melania Trump.
Watch: Laura Benanti’s Melania Trump impression is eerily accurate
Constance Grady is a senior correspondent on the Culture team for Vox, where since 2016 she has covered books, publishing, gender, celebrity analysis, and theater.
Benanti is a Broadway star best known for winning a Tony for the 2008 Gypsy revival and stealing every scene of The Sound of Music Live! away from Carrie Underwood as the Baroness. And as it turns out, her Melania Trump is pitch perfect.
Benanti takes the stage as Melania to defend her plagiarized speech from Monday night. “My fellow Americans,” she begins, preening and posing. “This is truly the best of times. It is the worst of times.”
From there, she goes on to celebrate her humble beginnings in West Philadelphia, born and raised, and requests that we all give her a break, give her a break, break her off a piece of that Kit Kat bar.
And with that, every single member of the Saturday Night Live writer’s room just started brainstorming new Melania Trump sketches for the next season. At least Benanti is here to save us all from this election season.
