Broadway sensation Sutton Foster comes to Rochester

Broadway star Sutton Foster sings with exactly the kind of
bright-eyed conviction, poise, and exuberance you would expect from a two-time
Tony Award winner (for “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and “Anything Goes”) and
originator of roles like Fiona in “Shrek The Musical.”
But Foster’s also the kind of performer who relishes breaking out from behind
the characters she portrays, as she will do on February 10 and 11 when she
joins the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik for a pair of concerts in Kodak Hall.

In a recent phone interview, CITY spoke to Foster about her
“go-to” song, the Broadway character she is most like, and why concert
performances are more about self-expression. An edited transcript of that
conversation follows.

CITY: When did you know that you wanted to pursue a career
in theater?

Sutton Foster: I grew up in a small town in Georgia,
then moved to Michigan. And my dad worked for General Motors; my mom was a mom.
I didn’t know anybody that made a career of entertainment. It was all very
foreign to me. I started dancing when I was young and started doing theater, just
for fun. It was interesting; when I was in high school and sort of thinking
about what I wanted to do with my life, I had no other interests or other
options, really.

It had to have happened in high school, you know. But
obviously, I never thought — I was like, “People get paid to do this?” I always
thought of it as something that people did for fun, like it was an
extracurricular activity. I never thought, “Oh wow, you can actually make a
living,” just because it seemed sort of foreign to me. But I don’t know what
else I would have done had I not pursued being a performer.

Is there a character you portray with whom you identify
most?

I feel like I try to find ways to identify with all of the
characters I play, but the one that sort of popped into my mind, I played a
character called Violet in a Broadway show called “Violet.” I feel like she and
I shared quite a bit, and I very much identified with her.

Was there a defining characteristic that felt particularly
natural or organic?

I think we just shared sort of a darkness. I had been playing
a lot of happy-go-lucky, feel-good characters, and Violet had a darkness to
her, and it was awesome for me to explore as an actress. I just understood her.
She was someone who was sort of wounded as a child, and searching to be healed,
and I related to that.

Is there a song that you sing for yourself, as a way to
center yourself?

Honestly, I will say that being a singer and also being
surrounded by music so much in my life, I tend to spend a lot of my downtime in
quiet. I never really play music around the house. I rarely sing, unless I’m
working on something.

If I had to go to something that really centered me or just
sort of summed me up, that felt like a true expression of self, I would
probably say “Sunshine on My Shoulders,” which is John Denver. It was one of my
favorite songs growing up as a kid, and one of my mom’s favorite songs, and now
we sing it with the symphonies. I don’t necessarily listen to myself singing
it, but I feel like when I sing live or when I’m performing it, that’s an
incredibly sort of centering moment for me — spiritually and musically,
everything kind of comes together.

What do you love most about live performance?

I feel like anything could happen. There’s something very
magical about sharing a space and a time, in a live moment — especially these
days, where we can press pause, or we’re constantly on our phones. But for like
two hours, everyone in that theater is off their phone, hopefully; they’re
completely present, hopefully; and we’re all sort of in it together, you know? …
I love performing live because there’s nothing like it. There’s nothing like
having that relationship with an audience, the give and take. Everyone plays a
part in it.

And during concerts, singing with a symphony, I enjoy it
because it isn’t about playing a character. I’m just me. I get to sort of show
audiences who I am as an artist, as opposed to who I am behind a character or a
role. Some of the songs are from shows and stuff, but I get to sort of
reinterpret things through the lens of myself, which is cool. So it gives an
audience an opportunity to get to know me more as a person, and it’s definitely
a more intimate experience.

This article appears in Feb 8-14, 2017.