PROVO — Sutton Foster was in a romantic mood, and audience members’ hearts were melted.
To launch this year’s BYU Bravo! Professional Performing Arts series the Broadway star with two Tony awards to her credit gave an irresistibly charming performance of romantic cabaret-style selections.
As she announced from the stage at the Friday, Sept. 5, concert, Foster will be married in 50 days, by her own count. It was perfectly evident she is longing for that special day. Consider the titles of the songs she chose: “The Nearness of You,” “It’s Crazy (But I’m in Love)” and “My Heart Was Set on You.”
The titles showed a sidestep move from the songs she has made famous in her starring vehicles on Broadway. Foster appears to be embracing a new level of maturity outside the songs written for the wide-eyed innocent roles of Princess Fiona, Millie Dillmount, Janet Van De Graaff and Joe March in blockbuster shows like “Shrek The Musical,” “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” “The Drowsy Chaperone,” and “Little Women,” respectively.
To not disappoint fans of these shows, a single hit song from each was combined into a medley, including “Not for the Life,” “NYC” and “Astonishing” from “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” “Annie” and “Little Women,” respectively, as well as “I Get a Kick Out of You” from her Tony-winning turn as Reno Sweeney in “Anything Goes.”
The evening’s first song, the Sinatra standard “Nice ’n’ Easy,” established the tone for the performance. She began snapping her fingers near the song’s end and encouraged audiences to join in with a finger-snapping chorus. It was her easy and confident delivery that made her most endearing. Working with her music director and collaborator, Michael Rafter, Foster allowed the sentiments to be plainly spoken and scaled back the drama.
The theme of missed possibilities for romance was seen in “The People That You Never Get to Love.” Written by Rupert Holmes, famous for his Broadway shows “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” and “Curtains,” the wistful song includes the lyrics “You’ll share an elevator, just you two / And you'll rise in total silence to the floor / Like the fool you are, you get off / And he leaves your life behind a closing door.”
Foster turned some time over to her friend and former “Little Women” cast member to perform two songs, as Foster removed her sparkly shoes with 5-inch heels to relax offstage. Surprise guest vocalist Megan McGinnis, who played the young sister Amy to Foster’s Joe March, shared a few songs, including her most affecting “The Secret of Happiness.” Foster returned for a collaboration with her shoes thrown aside, as they performed together a stunning a cappella cover of Simon and Garfunkel's "Old Friends/Bookends."
Foster’s final performances before the thunderous request for an encore were “Anyone Can Whistle” and “Being Alive,” two Stephen Sondheim cabaret staples. She delivered “Anyone Can Whistle” and “Being Alive” with emotional immediacy on fierce level.
This passion of the two Sondheim compositions lead to a selection from “The Big Book of Reeeeally High Belt Songs,” which is a wide binder with her own penmanship seen on the cover. To end the evening, Foster performed a blockbuster belt song from “Thoroughly Modern Millie” called “Gimme Gimme.”
Foster paused and gave gratitude to the concert's producer, Jeff Martin, for the extreme kindness shown while on campus and a side trip to an In-N-Out.
With Foster and a bevy of other Broadway stars who have performed at BYU recently — including ultra-high-profile stars like Audra McDonald, Mandy Patinkin, Lea Salonga and Brian Stokes Mitchell — audiences were left to anticipate what major Broadway performers Martin will be able to attract next for the thoroughly enjoyable project he masterminds, The Bravo! Professional Performing Arts series.