 |  *credit to Laura Marie Duncan Photography |
Track Listing: 1. I'm Beginning to See The Light 2. Warm All Over 3. The Late, Late Show |  |
Sutton Foster released her debut solo album, Wish, on February 17, 2009.
Dick Scanlan's Liner Notes:
WISH COME TRUE - Album Notes by Dick Scanlan:
The first time Sutton Foster ever laid eyes on a Broadway stage was not from the rear mezzanine, or even eighth row, center: it was from the wings of the Palace Theatre-which in the annals of show business is synonymous with reaching the top. Barely 17 years old, she'd auditioned for a chorus part in the national tour of The Will Rogers Follies in Detroit, the northern city to which her oh-so-southern family had moved. Such auditions for local talent are often just a ploy to sell some tickets via the 11 o'clock news, but, when they saw Sutton, the Follies folk wanted a second look. A month later, she was on stage at the Palace. Tommy Tune had one listen, and the high school junior became a showgirl. That was the last time Sutton played the Palace, but there is no arguing that she has since reached the top. With Wish, her debut CD, she is aiming even higher, and bringing us all that much closer to musical heaven.
If the song list is eclectic, so is the singer. You know that magical quality of morning light after a night of torrential downpour? Redemptive. Pure. Joyful, but a joy hard-won by having survived the rain. Listen to Sutton's take on "Sunshine" (a bold choice, given the knee-jerk dismissal the song often elicits). This is an ode to the sun offered up by someone who has known the clouds-perhaps quite recently-and is that much more grateful for warmth, for energy, for all that is life affirming. Optimistic by choice, because she knows the alternative is the easier option, and nothing good ever comes easy.
Sutton's first success is the stuff of legend. The show was Thoroughly Modern Millie (for which I wrote the book and lyrics) but the back-story was pure 42nd Street: cast in the chorus, promoted to the lead, and a Tony Award-winning star was born. Since that time, she's created lead roles in Little Women, The Drowsy Chaperone, Young Frankenstein and Shrek The Musical. Five new musicals in six years-a record unmatched since Merman burst on the scene nearly eight decades ago.
Wish is the culmination of a musical expedition that began during Millie, when Sutton first started to collaborate with music director Michael Rafter beyond the confines of that show. Together, they combed through countless songs (Michael was resistant when Sutton's first suggestion was "Sunshine") and developed a means of communicating that required few words. A smile here, a shake of the head there, and a song's fate was decided. Along the way, they tried out material in sold-out gigs at Lincoln Center and Joe's Pub, all of which I attended. It's thrilling for me to hear the songs that made the cut-and to remember some of the loopier experiments that didn't. (If you like loopy, check out the bonus track.)
Sutton and I met in 1998, when she auditioned for an early Millie reading, singing "A Cockeyed Optimist." (See "Optimistic by choice, " above.) I had the feeling I was watching a filly still finding her legs. As our working relationship deepened, I was struck by her impeccable manners (it's that Georgia upbringing), not to mention her keen, quiet intelligence: whenever I handed Sutton a freshly rewritten scene, she would not only memorize it in seconds flat, she'd (100% correctly) deduce the dramaturgical reasons behind the changes.
Throughout rehearsals for Millie, I only ever saw Sutton in sweatpants or jeans. Not until she stepped on stage in a flapper dress did I realize that this filly had indeed found her legs. And they're pretty fabulous: at once gawky and gazelle-like. Yet another one of the contradictions that made Sutton an overnight success-if the ten years and four Broadway shows between that audition at the Palace and Thoroughly Modern Millie can be called "overnight." I remember Tommy Tune coming twice during previews to celebrate the star Sutton was becoming, along with so many former cast mates, curious to see if success had changed her. It hasn't. As her artistry deepens, so does her capacity to step out of the spotlight and beam her attention on those she holds dear. Even this writer, who barraged her with notes for the better part of two years.
Now we're neighbors. We pass each other walking our dogs at the pre-coffee hour of 10 am, and we nod. During our dogs' afternoon stroll, we stop for a quick catch-up. And when one of us of needs bucking up or cheering on, we meet for dinner. To quote Noel Coward's little-known gem "Come the Wild, Wild Weather" (a Rafter contribution to Wish), "We will still be together when our life story ends, for wherever we chance to go, we will always be friends."
Lucky me. And if you're about to experience Sutton and her Wish, for the first time or the hundredth, lucky you. Reviews ["On the Record" by Steven Suskin from playbill.com] ["Quirky, Intelligent, and a Very Good Start", a review from amazon.com]
Dick Scanlan December, 2008
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Sutton Foster released her debut live album, An Evening with Sutton Foster: Live at the Cafe Carlyle, on March 15, 2011.
Mark Waldrop's Liner Notes
SUTTON FOSTER IS THE REAL DEALHERE’S ONE OF THE WAYS I KNOW
Pulling off a really great club act is one of the toughest feats in show business – even for a Broadway star like Sutton. It takes so much more than assembling a list of songs and knocking them out of the park (which pretty much defines a really bad club act.) For the entertainers who elevate this intimate art form, the song list becomes a vehicle for delivering a distillation of their own unique personalities. A friend of mine once said that the tricky thing about doing cabaret is that you have to be yourself on purpose. This seemingly simple requirement has tripped up a surprising number of otherwise brilliant performers. There’s no character to hide behind. It’s just you there, exposed. To thrive in this setting, you have to be comfortable in your own skin.
Fortunately, Sutton knows who she is and occupies her own skin with perfect grace. She brings to the stage the full range of her humanity (including a perversely hilarious sense of humor) and shares it with the kind of ease and simplicity that can be achieved through hard work and discipline. It also helps that the real Sutton Foster is a really wonderful person.
When Sutton was booked for the Café Carlyle, I’d already had the pleasure of working with her and her extraordinary music director and pianist, Michael Rafter, on two shows for Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series, engagements at Joe’s Pub and Feinstein’s, and a series of concert appearances around the country. Everywhere she’d gone she’d enjoyed great success. But now I felt strangely intimidated. The Carlyle was such a bastion of tradition; so Upper East Side; so, um … expensive. Might some of the more raucous and theatrical elements in Sutton’s act be too much for this refined crowd? Should we tone back? Add a few more standards? At a rehearsal I voiced these concerns, and Sutton received them respectfully. She said she’d think about them. When I saw her about a week later, she said that, after giving it a lot of consideration, she wanted to do the show as planned – because it represented who she really was.
And -- of course – Sutton was right. The engagement was a smash with rave reviews and a sold-out run. The Café Carlyle audiences couldn’t have loved her more. When you listen to this CD you won’t see her effortless on-stage costume change, her bejeweled “Pimp” and “Ho” cups, or how she can -- drum-role, please -- touch the tip of her nose with her tongue. But you will hear an incomparable voice in full bloom and experience the fresh, one-of-a-kind personality that comes through in every word and every note. To witness any performance by Sutton Foster is to receive an infusion of joy. With the CD, that joy is yours whenever you want it.
- Mark Waldrop
Reviews
["Innocence and Nerve Wrapped Into One" by Stephen Holden from New York Times]
["Sutton Foster - An Evening with Sutton Foster - Live at the Cafe Carlyle" from Wildy's World blogspot]
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