Amazing Broadway Performer: Sutton Foster

It was with great excitement that I sat down in the Marquis Theatre to see The Drowsy Chaperone last August. More than anything, I was so excited to get to see Sutton Foster for the first time. I had seen her on televised performances from both Thoroughly Modern Millie and Little Women and after seeing those shows on tour had picked up their OBCRs, so I was quite familiar with whom Sutton Foster was.

This woman has it all. I hate to do comparisons, but she’s really become the Gwen Verdon or Mary Martin of our time, able to command the stage with her talent, to tackle a variety of roles extremely well, and she’s managed to do it without long stretches between roles. I greatly admire her dedication to the profession. I would never ever hold it against her for going West if she ever chose, but she’s done what several other major Broadway stars of the past decade could have done—making a career on Broadway—but the difference is that she’s choosing to do it. She’s taking on long runs in new shows and running away with our hearts while she’s at it.

I loved her as Janet Van De Graaff. You couldn’t take your eyes off her. She’s got that magnetic stage presence like a Broadway star must have, and she knows how to work her audience. I ate up every second of her performance.

Website: http://www.geocities.com/suttonfosteronline/



the Broadway Mouth
August 6, 2007