This is
the first of four hour-long concerts on PBS from big-name Broadway stars. I first heard about them last fall, they were
recorded back in December, and now, they’re finally airing. I’ve been waiting quite a while for these,
and I’m very happy they’re starting up at last.
Filmed in
Lincoln Center’s Appel Room (a very lovely, rather intimate space,) this series
is promoted as four concerts centered around each performer and their musical
history, something like the music that makes them up. That was definitely evident in this first
concert; while some songs were performed simply for fun and without preamble,
others were obviously significant to Sutton Foster herself, both professionally
and professionally.
She paid
clear tribute to her career, although a bit less than I necessarily would’ve
expected. Early on, she did a nice
medley of several numbers from her Broadway stage credits: “Not for the Life of Me” (from Thoroughly Modern Millie, of course,)
“NYC” from Annie (one of her earliest
Broadway shows, where she appeared briefly as the young would-be actress just
arrived in the city,) and Little Women’s
“Astonishing.” The concert also featured
the wonderful “Gimme, Gimme” from Thoroughly
Modern Millie, but to my surprise, Foster didn’t actually sing it. Instead, she brought out another former
Millie and gave her the big number while Foster provided a counterpoint with “I
Got Love” from Purlie. If there’s one thing I learned about Sutton
Foster from this concert, it’s that she’s an incredibly generous performer.
In fact,
she had several guests onstage over the course of the hour. She also brought out Megan McGinnis, who
played Beth in Little Women and who
Foster called one of her dearest friends, and the two of them shared a
beautiful duet – not “Some Things Are Meant to Be,” as I was hoping, but still
incredibly lovely. The evening’s final
guest was Jonathan Groff, and having seen his Broadway Miscast performance of
“Anything Goes,” I was prepared for how over-the-moon he’d be to be sharing the
stage with Foster. They performed a pair
of really cute numbers together, and he even cajoled her into dancing a little.
Other
numbers had a different sort of personal connection for Foster. To commemorate her youthful dreams of singing
at Lincoln Center, she performed a song she earmarked for herself back then,
Jason Robert Brown’s “Stars and the Moon.”
She dedicated a breathtaking rendition of John Denver’s “Sunshine on My
Shoulders” to her late mother, and she closed out the show with a medley
centering on the theme of optimism (led by “Cockeyed Optimist” from South Pacific,) as a point of
inspiration for her newly-adopted daughter.
In between, she mixed in a handful of other numbers, mostly old
standards: Kander & Ebb, Cole
Porter, old-school Sondheim (she did “Everybody Says Don’t,” which I adore,)
and the like.
Overall,
I enjoyed it, but I was a little surprised at how restrained Foster was, in
both voice and manner. I’m used to her
Broadway roles – via cast recordings and Tony performances – where she’s played
many exuberant characters and put her belting to excellent use. Not that she can’t be subtle, of course, but
when I think of Sutton Foster, I think “big voice.” Here, though, she was very controlled,
unleashing her belt at key moments but letting most songs build slowly. Even with powerhouse numbers like “Astonishing”
– and, since that one was part of a medley, she came in at the end of the song, when it’s at its zenith
– she reeled them out with care, singing them in ways I’ve never heard them
sung. I don’t know if it’s the smaller
venue, or not being in character, or what.
I wouldn’t call it a bad thing, although I am very fond of her belt – at
any rate, it was definitely hearing her in a different light.
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