A festive Eccles celebration with Broadway’s leading lady Sutton Foster
To celebrate 10 delightful years, the Eccles Theater presented “An Evening with Sutton Foster.”
How was the concert with the Broadway luminary? Delightful.
What made the evening so enjoyable, beyond her renowned powerful belt intertwined with her lilting soprano, was the absence of a heavy reliance on songs from her 10 Broadway shows. Onstage, Foster creates characters from scripts, interpreting dialogue written for them. In concert, she has the freedom to reveal more of herself.
Her selections this evening were personal. Each song was introduced with heartfelt reminiscences, giving the audience a glimpse into her life beyond the stage. That personal connection brought her individual charm, effervescence and undeniable glee more fully to the forefront. There was an infusion of genuine warmth, and audiences readily connected with her brief introductory stories.
Through her daughter Emily, Sutton has been exposed to a wider range of music and the musical tastes of a nine-year-old. Consider “It’s Raining Tacos,” a piece of internet-era children’s pop culture. It’s a deliberately silly, surreal novelty song by musician and songwriter Parry Gripp.
“What Are You Gonna Do?” became a humorous parental lament. For Sutton, the challenge is getting Emily dressed, ready to leave the house and off to school on time.
There was a natural segue to Emily’s bedtime song, “Goodnight, My Someone.” Sutton sang the lovely Meredith Willson composition as Marian the Librarian in the 2022 revival of “The Music Man.” But it is also a song she has sung to Emily nearly since birth, always inserting the words, “I love you, I’m proud of you, I’m so happy to be your mother.”
She also paid tribute to her father, sharing tender memories along with one particularly amusing observation he once made: “I can always tell when someone else does your makeup.”
When Foster turned to familiar selections from her stage performances, they weren’t simply reproductions of the songs as performed by the characters. She brought fresh interpretations to the material.
A choir from the University of Utah’s Department of Theatre joined her for “I’m on My Way” from “Violet,” the Jeanine Tesori and Brian Crawley musical in which Foster played the title role. It’s a relatively little-known musical, and Foster was surprised when a lone audience member shouted out the show’s name. “Thanks to the one person,” she quipped. (That person was me. I tremendously enjoyed seeing the 2014 Broadway production.)
She then asked the students who had brought their tap shoes. Inviting the dancers forward, she joined them for “Anything Goes,” the title song from the Cole Porter musical. Foster won her second Tony Award for playing Reno Sweeney in the 2011 Broadway revival. The students’ tap performances were impressive, with synchronized routines spanning the full stage rather than simply dancing in place.
Foster’s first Tony was for “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” a role she landed in an extraordinary turn of events. Plucked from the chorus during the show’s pre-Broadway tryout in La Jolla, California, she stepped into the title role after another actress departed the production. It was in that show that she first worked with her accompanist for the evening, Michael Rafter, a gifted pianist and arranger who contributed to the musical arrangements for many of her selections.
Another enchanting touch was the inclusion of two local performers portraying Young Fiona and Teen Fiona in “I Know It’s Today” from “Shrek the Musical.” (Sorry, I didn’t catch your names.) It was a lovely trio, with all three Fionas singing together as the character reflects on the passage of time and her dreams of growing up.
What the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Theater is celebrating — with its two venues, the 2,500-seat Delta Performance Hall and 142-seat (average) Regent Street Black Box — is the economic impact that has exceeded $1.25 billion and more than 2.7 million visitors across over 2,000 events. Of most importance to theatergoers is its impact as a major cultural destination, often hosting Broadway tours in advance of other similar theaters across the country. Salt Lake City has been enriched by the transformation in how audiences experience live entertainment.
Delightful.
