Performance review: Sutton Foster at the Orange County Performing Arts Center

The role of the all-American ingénue turned New York diva comes naturally to Sutton Foster. “I was the girl in those songs,” the Tony-winning star said Thursday during her cabaret performance at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, after singing a medley of tunes from three of her Broadway performances: "Thoroughly Modern Millie," "Annie" and "Little Women."

Foster has a practical, self-deprecating demeanor and the big voice and long arms of a stage queen -- or at least a Princess Fiona, her last star turn (in "Shrek: The Musical"). 

Foster’s best when she’s playful about her prodigious talent and homespun beauty. She romped through “I Don’t Want To Show Off,” from "The Drowsy Chaperone," with goofball charm, ripping falsies out of her dress (then retrieving them from an audience member). In perhaps a Samueli first, she displayed her pair of “Pimp” and “Ho” goblets. Making fun of the genre she does best, she held up her “Big Book of Really High Belt Songs.”

The problem is, those really high belt songs play better in a big room. On the otherwise moving “My Heart Was Set on You,” Foster’s voice rattled the small space with sharp, metallic tones.

When Megan McGinnis came out mid-set, the "Little Women" costar’s softer, higher voice brought out the warm, low tones from Foster; their duet of “Flight” transported the room.

Accompanied by pianist and musical director Michael Rafter, Foster sang show tunes and pop songs. The difference between a stage star versus a singer-songwriter in concert is not so much that you’re not sure if she’s acting, but that she’s Acting. During “Once Upon a Time,” as Foster gazed longingly into the middle distance, I kept wanting to turn around and see what was climbing up the Samueli’s back wall.

Foster’s debut OCPAC performances had been rescheduled so that she can star in the spring Broadway revival of "Anything Goes."  Foster has little to prove to Broadway lovers, yet she’s far from a household name (though she has been a Jeopardy question). If she plays to her Ethel Merman qualities -- her comic timing and brassy verve -- she could not only nail Reno Sweeney but perhaps clinch her signature role, ultimate American sweetheart.

-- Evelyn McDonnell

Sutton Foster, Samueli Theater, Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Dr., Costa Mesa. Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 7 p.m. $74 Contact: 714-556-2787 or OCPAC.org

Photo: Foster at the Samueli theater Thursday night. Credit: Glenn Koenig/Los Angeles Times

 

Comments

[Walter Holinoty]

I think Sutton is well aware of how she is singing for the room. And while the above reviewer thought she rattled the room with metallic tones at times, other reviews have referred to her voice as brassy and stentorian at times while never betraying musicality. She has many different timbers to her voice and he musical chops to use each appropriately. Her trumpet vibrato is reserved for the dramatic key points of "My Heart Was Set on You' and is not used throughout the otherwise flutelike treatment that I have also heard in person.

As for the comment about Sutton acting or Acting (with a capitol A) in "Once Upon a Time, indeed she is. However, it is definitely of the method acting variety and is in the category of "being the song." She is the best out there at this. How is that a negative thing? And she is much more being herself than the cliched songwriter type cabaret. Indeed, earlier in her tour Sutton was interviewed by this same newspaper and made the following observation:

"I just don't like the cheese factor of cabaret. Like the" -- she pantomimes a lounge singer, winking and pointing finger pistols out at a imaginary audience "… of it all, you know?"

In an attempt to transcend her reservations, Foster is developing, in collaboration with her accompanist, Michael Rafter, "An Evening With Sutton Foster" (subtitled "An intimate concert performance"). Foster emphasizes that it's a concert, not cabaret, but adds that whatever you call it, "it's definitely quirky and weird -- and very much me."

Sutton Foster's genius is is apparent on audio tracks and is doubled when seen in person. For example, as she gazes out longingly in "Once Upon a Time" one is musically invited to see through her eyes as she experiences the song. I can't fathom why someone would turn down that invitation out of a sudden interest in the back wall of the theater.