Guest ArtistsSutton Foster

Sutton Foster is an award-winning actor, singer and dancer who has performed in 11 Broadway shows – most recently the revival of Violet – and originated roles in the Broadway productions of The Drowsy Chaperone, Little Women, Young Frankenstein, Shrek The Musical and her Tony Award-winning performances in Anything Goes and Thoroughly Modern Millie.

Sutton is a two-time Tony Award winner: she earned the 2011 Tony Award for her most recent role as Reno Sweeney in The Roundabout’s revival of Anything Goes, and the 2002 Tony Award for her performance as Millie Dillmount in Thoroughly Modern Millie, a role she created in the 2000 La Jolla Playhouse premiere. She also received the 2011 Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Astaire and Broadway.com’s Audience Favorite Awards for Anything Goes, as well as the 2002 Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Astaire Awards for Millie.

Previous Broadway leading roles include Princess Fiona in Shrek The Musical (2008 Tony and Drama Desk nominations, Outer Critics Circle Award); Inga in Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein; Janet Van De Graff in The Drowsy Chaperone (2006 Tony and Drama Desk nominations, LA Ovation Award); and Jo March in Little Women – The Musical (2005 Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations).

Other Broadway credits include Les Misérables, Annie, The Scarlet Pimpernel and Grease. Regional productions include What the World Needs Now (Old Globe), Dorian (Goodspeed), The Three Musketeers (San Jose Musical Theater), Nellie Forbush in South Pacific and Sally in Me and My Girl (both at Pittsburgh CLO). She has toured nationally in The Will Rogers Follies, Les Misérables and Grease.

As a solo artist, Sutton has performed all over the country as well as internationally with her musical director Michael Rafter; her concerts have featured songs from her debut solo CD Wish as well as her follow-up CD, An Evening with Sutton Foster: Live at the Cafe Carlyle. She has graced the stages of Carnegie Hall, Feinstein’s, Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series, Joe’s Pub and many others.

Sutton has performed in concert at Lincoln Center’s “American Songbook” series, Carnegie Hall with the New York Pops, with Peter Nero and the Philly Pops, Joe’s Pub and Feinstein’s. Sutton has also appeared at various benefits and special events, including “Don’t Quit Your Day Job” and “Broadway Bares,” among others. Recordings include The Maury Yeston Songbook (PS Classics), Jule Styne in Hollywood and the original cast recordings of Thoroughly Modern Millie, Little Women, The Drowsy Chaperone, Young Frankenstein and Shrek The Musical. Her debut solo CD, Wish (Ghostlight Records), received critical acclaim upon its release in 2009. Following An Evening with Sutton Foster: Live at the Cafe Carlyle (2011), her latest CD release, from 2018, is Take Me to the World.

Sutton was first seen on television on Star Search at age 15, and has more recently appeared in Bunheads, Psych, Johnny and the Sprites, Flight of the Conchords, Sesame Street, Law & Order: SVU and Royal Pains. Since 2015 she has starred in TV Land’s Younger, created by Darren Star.

In 2011 Sutton Foster received an Honorary Doctorate degree from Ball State University, where she also is on faculty as a teacher and advisor to the Department of Theatre and Dance.