CITY Issue 52

Chaperone Chaperone, the love letter to old-school Broadway, where she was nominated again for her turn as Janet Van De Graaff, who’s giving up show business for marriage in the musical within a musical. (That’s three nomination for three shows, for those keeping score at home.) So how did an actress who’s played a street urchin, a broke flapper, a tomboy, and an actress become Broadway’s most dynamic leading lady? Well, at 5' 9" she’s got the height and legs and dancing abilities of a Rockette. Add to that an infectious energy and the requisite acting chops, and the audience has a hard time looking at anyone else. But it’s actually Foster’s voice that grabs your attention the most. Pure and rich, it’s also inflected with a little bit of geekiness that she thankfully still hasn’t let go of. Listen to “Astonishing” from Little Women and you’ll hear a young woman whose ambitions are real and earnest: yes, an aspiring writer in Civil War–era Pennsylvania, but also a kid from Troy, Michigan, dreaming of Broadway and sincerely believing herself when she sings: “There’s a life that I am meant to live, a life like nothing I have known” and “I will blaze until I find my time and place, I will be fearless, surrendering modesty and grace.” In Chaperone’s “Show Off ”—a number that Ben Brantley, reviewing in the New York Times, said, “lifts the audience into a helium paradise of pure pleasure”—that Broadway dreamer has made it to the big stage, and despite her insistence that she wants out, the star clearly loves every minute in the spotlight. Watch her sing a love song—as in “Jimmy” in Millie—or even a song of Millie longing, as in “On My Own” from Les Miz, and you’ll see a Miz rendition built around an innocent school girl’s crush. (In a funny reversal of sorts, Foster recently guest-starred as Bret’s girlfriend in HBO’s The Flight of the Conchords, where the New Zealander and his buddy Jermaine both serenade her, much to her confused delight.) Inga, then, is a very different role for Foster, and not just because it’s a supporting role, which she was looking for after Drowsy. “Because I’ve never played anything like this, I Drowsy was so shocked that [Brooks and Stroman] saw it in me, that I could do it,” she says. “I like the idea of doing something that’s just really different. I was nervous, too, but it’s been so fun to find her and I’ve never felt more beautiful. I have this beautiful blonde wig and I look totally different. People are like, ‘Oh my God, you’re such a knockout, you look so beautiful,’ and I’m always like, ‘Heyyyyy, like I don’t look like Heyyyyy Heyyyyy, a knockout in real life?’ In fact, she does. It’s 5:35 back in the Hilton lobby and Foster emerges from behind a guarded closed door dressed in a gorgeous Versace dress and high heels. She can barely walk, let alone sit down on the stool one of the union guys has tracked down for us. “Fashion: I don’t know how women do it,” she says, as the photographer starts snapping again. Indeed, when we asked her weeks earlier to name her favorite designers so we can call in a few looks, she called herself an Anthropologie girl. Inga, of course, wears lederhosen, bust-revealing dresses, and, well, probably very little when she and Dr. Frankenstein, in Foster’s words, “get it on” on the laboratory’s operating table. “[That sultry side is] definitely a part of myself, so it’s fun to dig deeper into that, into something that kind of scares me—sexuality and sensuality and all those things that I don’t wear on myself on a daily basis,” she says. “It’s fun to delve into the character and to be a sex symbol, to be the sexy lab assistant.” As one might imagine, it’s been as much fun to work with Brooks, Stroman, and her “fellow fools” on stage. “I was a little nervous at first,” she says of having Brooks always within about five feet during rehearsals. “I would kind of avoid him. Not on purpose but out of respect: I don’t want to impose myself on you. After a while, he touched me on my cheek, he grabbed my shoulder, or gave me a hug, or kissed me on my cheek, or said hello, and he’s just been so amazing. Everyday, I’m just like, I get to hang out with Mel Brooks.” As director-choreographer, Stroman is the real boss in rehearsal, Foster points out. “It’s not like she’s a task master. You only want to please her because she’s bringing her best. I’ve never worked with someone more prepared. The way she puts together numbers, I think, okay, I have to match that, I have to match her level of professionalism.” The cast, meanwhile, is the most collaborative Foster says she’s ever worked with, carrying the motto that a good idea is a good idea, no matter who comes up with it. Throughout the run in Seattle, Foster and Co. were constantly spitballing and building on each other’s ideas, as when she and Bart came up with a better “button” to end a number in the second act. “He’s like what if we did this—well what about this—and you could do this—and we both came up with this idea and then next thing you know we’re pitching it to Andrea and Chris, and we’re like, okay, imagine if you will…”—can you hear her wonderful geekiness?—“and we’re trying to pitch them this idea. And then the next thing I know, Roger’s dragging me to the edge of the stage to pitch it to Mel, who’s in the audience. And I’m like, ‘Are you sure this is all right? What are you doing?’ We pitch the idea, Mel laughs, says it’s a good idea, and he walks away, and we’re like, okayyyyy. okayyyyy The next day, we get in, and I’m being pulled to the lobby to rehearse this new idea.” Across the country in another lobby—5:58!— the photo shoot is wrapping up, Foster’s hair now down out of the ponytail for a few candid close-ups. A few minutes later, the shoot is over and everyone huddles around a laptop near the lobby entrance to take a look at the results, Foster waddling over, still in her Versace, to take a peek herself. “I’ve got to get some copies of these pictures,” she says. “My mom will be like, ‘What are you wearing ?’ ” As if on cue, the house doors open and Brooks himself walks in, amazed to find his starlet in such a getup in the middle of the lobby. He moves close to the computer, watching as the photos flick by. “This is a great shot. You could go right into burlesque,” Brooks tells Foster, inspiring a loud chortle from his Inga. “They wouldn’t even shout at you to ‘Take it off!’ ” Before heading inside the theater he gives Foster three kisses on alternating cheeks, which absolutely makes her day. I ask Brooks why he cast Foster in Young Frankenstein. “She’s the best and most talented young lady on Broadway,” he says. “That doesn’t mean she gets any more money because she’s the best, but she’s the best.” CITY 69

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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