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>> Laura Sullivan: Sutton Foster is one of Broadway's brightest young stars.
The actress, singer, and dancer won Tony Awards for her performances
in Anything Goes and Thoroughly Modern Millie. She also originated roles in the
Broadway productions of The Drowsy Chaperone,
Little Women, Young Frankenstein, and Shrek the Musical.
Foster makes her Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State debut
in a Valentine's weekend concert with her trio. PreViews Editor John Mark
Rafacz
speaks with Foster about the show, pop, and jazz songs she'll be performing at
Penn State.
She discusses the differences between performing in a musical theater
production
and headlining a concert. She also talks about her early experiences with musical
theater
and her TV series, Bunheads. >> John Mark Rafacz: We're thrilled that you're going to be making
your Penn State concert debut in February.
What can audiences expect to hear that night?
>> Sutton Foster: It'll be a collection of songs from
shows that I've done on Broadway, but then also a bunch of
new material. Things that we sorted discovered.
American songbook, some old jazz tunes,
some little hidden gems.
It's such an opportunity for me, as like a solo artist, to be able to express myself
creatively as myself, as opposed to
by playing a character or being in a show.
So, it's a really intimate
sort of insight of just sort of who I am as an artist and as a performer.
>> Rafacz: Any chance since that concert is happening on Valentine's weekend that
there might be
a few more romantic tunes than usual? [laughter] Or is that something you hadn't considered? [laugher]
>> Foster: That's actually a great idea. [laughter] Well, there's definitely
you know, they always say most songs have something to do with love.
So there's definitely
a handful of love songs involved in the show. The good, the bad,
and the ugly. >> Rafacz: I realize it's a concert setting,
and so it's all about you singing.
But do you ever feel like when you're on stage during a concert that
there are moments you want to break into a tap dance? [laughter]
>> Foster: What's been interesting is that I haven't incorporated that
yet into the concerts,
but it's something that I'm actually thinking about doing is
incorporating
more dance into the shows and stuff. But we haven't sort of --
It's been actually kind of nice to just stand and sing.
>> Rafacz: You're so used to performing on stage as a character,
which usually involves being part of an ensemble.
Does it make it more challenging, is it more stressful, to be
down front the entire time and performing as a soloist?
>> Foster: It's just different. You know, it's just a different experience.
It's definitely more vulnerable, more exposed.
But it's also, like, it's really exciting to be able to have
that type of creative control where I can decide what I want to say, what I want to
sing, you know, sort of how I want to represent myself
during that evening and to a crowd. Sometimes I get
enormously nervously right before I go out, because it is, it's
just me, you know, just out there all alone
for an hour and change.
And there isn't any other backup really.
But it's also really exciting to be able to express myself in that way
and to just be able to, you know, sing the songs that I love
and to be able to sort of find new material.
It's a really wonderful outlet. >> Rafacz: Do you have to
consciously adapt the way you're performing? Like
if you're in a cabaret setting in a club in New York, in a hotel, wherever,
it's obviously a much smaller venue than 2,500
seat Eisenhower auditorium here. >> Foster: Right. >> Rafacz: Is that
something you consciously have to sort of survey the hall and say, Okay I
need to
adapt when I'm doing because and the magnitude of the space?
>> Foster: I think so. I mean, a space lie the Cafe Carlyle, which seats about
90 people, it's more like performing in someone's living room,
as opposed to performing on a stage in an auditorium.
But at the same time,
it's really, the differences are very small. Because ultimately it's just
really wanting to translate the lyrics and to communicate
the lyrics and the songs. And sometimes that's done in a very simple way.
>> Rafacz: I know that you grew up in suburban Detroit. How old were you when you saw
your first show on Broadway?
>> Foster: Well, I was 17. It was the first time that I'd ever moved to New York.
Well, not moved to New York, went to New York.
I was 17 years old, and that was the first time I ever saw
a Broadway show. But when I was living in Detroit,
or outside Detroit,
all the touring shows would come through town. And I think the first touring show I saw was
Me and My Girl.
I just remember the show ending and me thinking, Oh my gosh I want to do that. I
want to do that.
And we tried to see as many of the shows that came through as we could.
I mean that was an incredible way to sort of
be able to see theater. And the productions were so --
They were Broadway productions. And then when I was 17, we took our first
trip to New York City.
>> Rafacz: How old were you when you saw Me and My Girl? Do you remember?
>> Foster: I think I was 15. >> Rafacz: But you had, I'm sure,
long before that been -- You probably were studying dance
and singing from a fairly young age?
>> Foster: Yeah, I started dancing when I was 4, and then
doing community theater. I think I started
when I was 10 or 11, and then just being involved in sort of anything I could get
my hands on
locally. You know, in high school, the high school
theater, community theater. Anything that I could do that --
Any type of experience that I could get my hands on. Rafacz: Your brother, hunter, your older brother, is also a very
accomplished
Broadway actor. Has also been nominated for a couple of Tonys.
Did the two of you grow up in a musical family?
Was that the motivation, or did you two come upon this on your own?
>> Foster: Not at all. My dad worked for General Motors. My mom was a mom.
When we first started getting involved in
theater, we had no idea,
like, we didn't know what Broadway was. We didn't know that you could make
a living out of it. We just started doing it
for fun, you know, in community theater. I think
my brother's first show that he did was part of
our church, because they were doing a -- sort of like a rec center
at church. They needed a boy, another boy,
so they were like, Hunter, you want to be in it? You know, that type of a thing.
But it all kind of happened very naturally. It wasn't --
My extended family, everyone kind of looks at us because
we don't know, really where it all came from.
But we feel so lucky that we found it.
>> Rafacz: Tell me about Bunheads. What was it like being the star
of your own TV show? >> Foster: It was pretty amazing.
Amy Sherman Palladino -- Gilmore Girls was my favorite
TV show of all time. I was totally obsessed with it.
And to be able to work with her, and then now to call her one of
my friends, is, you know, kind of mind blowing. But it could not have been
a better experience. I learned so much.
I feel like I went to school to learn how to
be on camera and to learn how to work in television
because I had never really had an experience like that. I had primarily done
all theater for 20 years of my life. That's what I had been doing.
So it was awesome. And to work with Kelly Bishop,
and all the girls, and just to live in that environment,
in that world, and to live in Amy's world that she creates,
was awesome. I loved it. >> Rafacz: For the uninitiated, Kelly Bishop, of course, as
you well know,
was in the original production of A Chorus Line,
so you probably had quite a bit to talk about in terms of Broadway experience.
>> Foster: Yeah, she's just the best.
She's just a total pro.
I admire her and look up to her. She's just an amazing, wonderful woman.
>>Rafacz: Getting back to the stage, you did
a concert version of a musical called Violet, in
July in New York, that got great reviews. And I understand
a production is being mounted for a Broadway opening this spring.
>> Foster: Yes, we start rehearsals in February. >> Rafacz: Tell me a little bit about Violet.
>> Foster: Well Violet, written by Jeanine Tesori,
Brian Crowley -- Jeanine and I go way back.
She was the composer for Thoroughly Modern Millie, and Violet was actually her first
show that she wrote before Millie. It was written, and it was produced,
and done Off-broadway in '97,
I think, at Playwrights Horizons.
It's a beloved show. So many people --
I don't think it ever quite had its due when it first
opened. And we're so excited to be able to present its first Broadway run.
>> Sullivan: Spend an evening with Sutton Foster February 15, 2014,
at Penn State's Eisenhower Auditorium. For tickets or information,
visit cpa.psu.edu
or phone 1-800-ARTS-TIX.