Sutton Foster rocketed to stardom in the 2002 Broadway musical Thoroughly Modern Millie, based on the 1967 movie. She was cast as the understudy to the lead, and in one of those only-in-the-theater moments, the lead had to drop out and Sutton was on! And she was terrific, by the way. I don’t remember how I scored orchestra tickets to the show, but I did.
That role netted her a Tony Award.
Got to see her again in the 2011 revival of Anything Goes (thanks, belinda ridgewood!), which contains this epitome of the Eleven O’Clock Showstopper and earned her a second Tony:
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A bit of background:
Sutton Lenore Foster (born March 18, 1975) is an American actress, singer and dancer. She is known for her work on the Broadway stage, for which she has received two Tony Awards for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, in 2002 for her role as Millie Dillmount in Thoroughly Modern Millie, and in 2011 for her performance as Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes. Her other Broadway credits include Little Women, The Drowsy Chaperone, Young Frankenstein, Shrek the Musical, and Violet. On television, Foster played the lead role in the short-lived ABC Family comedy-drama Bunheads from 2012 to 2013. From 2015 to 2021, she starred in the TV Land comedy-drama Younger.
en.wikipedia.org/...
Singing “Gimme, Gimme” from Millie:
”Forget About the Boy” at the 2002 Tony Awards:
In the theater, a triple threat can act, sing, and dance — and do them all very well.
Who needs a brass section when you’ve got Sutton Foster? As the nightclub evangelist Reno Sweeney in the zesty new revival of “Anything Goes,” which opened on Thursday night at the Stephen Sondheim Theater, Ms. Foster has the voice of a trumpet and a big, gleaming presence that floods the house. When she leads the show-stopping “Blow, Gabriel, Blow,” you figure that if no horn-tooting archangel appears, it’s only because he’s afraid of the competition.
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It’s Ms. Foster who leads these numbers, both as a singer and as a dancer. And her triple mastery of words, music and moves is unmatched by any performer on Broadway at the moment. It’s not just that she nails every step, note and joke. It’s the attitude with which she does so — an aw-shucks kind of casualness coupled with a dizzy exhibitionist’s delight.
Ben Brantley, www.nytimes.com/...
“Blow, Gabriel, Blow,” from Anything Goes:
She returned to Broadway at the Marquis Theatre in May 2006 in The Drowsy Chaperone, a spoof of 1920s musicals. She played Janet van de Graaff, a famous Broadway starlet who opts to forgo a stage career in favor of married life. The musical had a pre-Broadway run at the Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles in November to December 2005.[25] Her performance earned her a third Tony nomination.
en.wikipedia.org/...
She must have been marvelous in The Drowsy Chaperone. Here’s the beginning of the show, performed at the Tonys:
And the beginning of Act Two:
For someone who first conquered Broadway as the most wholesome kid on the block, Sutton Foster dirties up real nice. Playing a jaded jazz baby in Andrew Lippa’s “The Wild Party,” which has been given a glossy concert revival by the Encores! Off-Center summer series, the actress who made her name being perky in musicals like “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and “Little Women” looks deliciously louche and lowdown.
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Her signature big, bright voice and wide-open face are still much in evidence as she shimmies and suffers her way through this 2000 tale of one night in hell in 1920s Manhattan. And she endows a willfully sour show, which has been retooled with her in mind by its creator, with a stinging sweetness it lacked 15 years ago. You could even say that “The Wild Party,” which once seemed sweaty without ever feeling warm, has taken on some heat and, more important, a heart.
Ben Brantley, www.nytimes.com/...
The Wild Party:
This is great! She talks about her big break with Stephen Colbert:
And there was Shrek, the musical:
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Mid-pandemic, Hannah Bayles, a vocal coach, analyzes Sutton Foster’s technique over her career and gives tips to aspiring singers:
Part 2:
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One last clip, from the Today Show, the title song: “Thoroughly Modern Millie”: