Face Behind a Mermaid

“On Monday, I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck,” says Jodi Benson, who’s putting in an eight-performance week playing a feisty fashion illustrator-turned-Communist organizer in Kander and Ebb’s period musical “Flora, the Red Menace” at the Pasadena Playhouse. “I’m on stage the whole time, running around, using up energy. So on Monday, I sleep in and try not to talk to anybody.”

That’s not easy for someone who’s gotten famous for her voice--playing the title role in last year’s popular animated film, “The Little Mermaid.” Recalls the Illinois native, “I thought I would just go in and sing on it; no big deal. It wasn’t till I started talking at schools and mental facilities that I realized the impact this film was having on people. All those 10-year-olds think I’m her! That’s a big responsibility to live up to.”

It’s also a possible career pigeonhole.

“I started out as an actress, then found I could make money as a singer--so I moved to New York,” says Benson (whose Broadway credits include “Smile,” “Marilyn: An American Fable” and “Welcome to the Club”). “Because of ‘Mermaid,’ people see me as a vocalist. So we’re working on that. I’ve been auditioning for not-singing stuff, mostly pilots. It’s a good time to be out here, introduce the face behind the voice.”

Although she’s toured all over the country--plus a trek to Italy in “West Side Story”--Benson is happy to settle down in Los Angeles (“I always wanted to live here, but I wanted to come out with a job”), and will be even happier when her actor-husband Ray arrives from New York. As for career, “Let’s face it,” she says with a sigh. “To my family in Illinois, Broadway doesn’t mean anything. To them, I won’t have made it till my face is on TV.”