CITY Issue 52

Foster stars as Inga, Dr. Frankenstein’s lab assistant in Mel Brooks’ new musical, Young Frankenstein, which opens Nov. 8 in Broadway’s Hilton Theatre. 68 CI T Y F O S T E R P O RT R A I T: P H OTO B Y A DA M A M E N G UA L . YO U N G F R A N K E N S T E I N S T I L L : P H OTO B Y PAU L KO L N I K . show-stopper. Multiply Little Old Lady Land by “Springtime for Hitler” and you’re still nowhere close to “Ritz.” “I’ve never been a part of something so… big, you know?” Foster says, though now she speaks of more than just the set pieces. “Everything I’ve done prior has been the ‘little show that could.’ The little ‘under the radar’ that comes in, and then people are like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ I’ve never done something so high-profile. It’s terrifying and thrilling and sort of like, how the hell did I get here?” She got here because, to be honest, Sutton Foster was, and still is, a high school theater geek. There’s no offence meant by that characterization, and the 32-year-old wouldn’t take any, because, well, she’s used it before to describe herself. Born in Georgia, her family moved to Troy, Michigan, at an early age, and she quickly became one of those kids freakily obsessed with theater. She’d invite friends over after school every day, invent elaborate plays that usually involved a bloody murder mystery, and then insist that everyone come back tomorrow for an encore. She was in every high school musical, went on Star Search at the age of 15, and, backed by the support of her parents and older brother Hunter (a writer and Broadway actor himself who oddly enough is starring in a much different and slightly smaller production of Frankenstein in New York this fall), landed a spot in the touring cast of Will Rogers’ Follies. She finished high school via correspondence courses, even managing, with the show stopping in Detroit on the perfect weekend, to get a Saturday night off to attend her senior prom. After a year at Carnegie Mellon (where she first became friends with future husband Christian Borle, star of the Broadway version of Legally Blonde), she did what every young aspiring Broadway actress must do—pack up her things and move to New York. Ensemble and understudy roles followed—in Les Miserables, Grease, Annie, and The Scarlet Pimpernell. While tourGrease Annie ing in Les Miz as Eponine, she was asked to audition for the title character in Thoroughly Modern Millie, a new musical based off the 1967 Julie Andrews film in which a “modern” flapper girl arrives in New York hoping to nab herself a rich husband. After umpteen auditions, she eventually lost the part, spurring Foster to make the biggest decision of her life: she told her agent to ask the Millie producers if they needed an understudy. They did, but just as she was heading out to La Jolla, Calif., where the show was getting its out-of-town-tryout, Les Miz on Broadway called to offer a permanent spot as Eponine. She made another impossible call—turning Les Miz down—and instead stayed on as the Millie understudy. If you’ve seen 42nd Street, you know what happens next: Street With just a week of rehearsals under her belt, Foster was asked to step in and take over as Millie; the entire show was then rebuilt around her; and yada yada yada, there she was a year later, the chorus girl accepting the Tony for Best Actress in a Broadway Musical. From Millie, Foster jumped to an adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, where she starred as Jo, the most outspoken of the March sisters (the show wasn’t a hit, but she got another Tony nomination), and then to The Drowsy

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CITY Issue 52

CITY Issue 52 Contents Letter from CITY Our Friends Action Wanted City Moment In Rogue Fit The Amused Bouche Fast Food Must Haves Hot Wheels Idol Handlers Design Public Affairs Pluck of the Draw Novel Ideas Monster's Belle Not Guilty The Understudies The Hunger Elastique Where to Buy It Socials Icon

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