Sutton Foster – An Evening With Sutton Foster – Live At The Café Carlyle

Sutton Foster – An Evening With Sutton Foster – Live At The Café Carlyle
2011, Ghostlight Records

Good actors can bend themselves to any role.  Great actors wrap a role around themselves like a second skin, becoming both themselves and the other.   For all of the acting classes and workshops one can take, this particular quality is not one that can be learned.  It’s a quality shared by some of the greatest names to grace the stages of the Great White Way:  Patti Lupone.  Bernadette Peters.  Angela Lansbury.  Kristin Chenoweth.  Sutton Foster. 

Sutton Foster made a name for herself as Millie Dillmount in Thoroughly Modern Millie, winning the 2002 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, as well as similar awards from Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk and the Fred Astaire Award for best actress in a musical.  Foster has gone on to roles such as Jo March (Little Women – Tony, Outer Desk and Drama League nominations); Janet Van De Graaf (The Drowsy Chaperone – Tony, Drama Desk, Drama League and Outer Circle nominations) and Princess Fiona (Shrek The Musical – 2009 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical).  On March 10, 2011, Foster began previews at The Roundabout Theatre for the Cole Porter classic musical Anything Goes.  As if she’s not busy enough, Foster also released her second album, An Evening With Sutton Foster – Live At The Café Carlyle, this week.

Live albums are always a risk.  Even in an era where genius and technology can make a rough performance sound great after the fact, an artist is totally exposed in a live performance, and particularly in the intimate setting of a cabaret show.  At the same time, the magic that occurs on stage is ever-so-difficult to transfer to an audio recording.  Yet it’s delightful to report that Sutton Foster pulls it all off with unabashed charm on An Evening With Sutton Foster.  Culling songs from her debut album Wish, as well as from her previous work on Broadway, Foster charms with a blend of songs and stories that will entertain you, touch your heart and make you laugh out loud.

The show opens with “I’m Beginning To See The Light”, a Duke Ellington number performed by Foster with the sole accompaniment of ukulele.  It’s a brilliant opening full of showgirl zeal but with an air authenticity that simply cannot be manufactured.  Foster has one of those voices that rings in your mind for ever after hearing it, and is personality plus on stage.  Foster strings together snippets of songs from roles she’s played in a medley of “Not For The Life Of Me” (Thoroughly Modern Millie), “NYC” (Annie) and “Astonishing” (Little Women).  As medleys go this one works better than most, the transitions almost seamless, even if “Not For The Life Of Me” was cut woefully short.  “Up On The Roof” is offered in a sweet and lyric interpretation that’s full of heart and a sense of reminiscence about her early years in New York City.

Foster’s cover of Christine Lavin’s “Air Conditioner” is perhaps even funnier than the original, owing a great deal to the charm and pizzazz of the singer, qualities that wash through your speakers and bathe the listener whole.  Foster changes paces nicely with “Warm All Over”, a sultry and sweet take on the Frank Loesser tune from Most Happy Fella.  Foster rips off the roof (and a boob pad) in “Show Off”, one of the signature numbers from The Drowsy Chaperone.  The roof lands several blocks away, as Foster cranks it up with a powerful, thousand-watt performance; while the boob pad hilariously lands on her brother, Hunter Foster.  The show goes on, but the moment is timeless and thankfully not excised from the recording.

“More To The Story” is a song that was cut from Shrek: The Musical before it came to New York, and you have to wonder why.  After hearing Foster’s performance here you won’t be able to imagine the show without it.  Foster’s performance is full of heart and beauty that moves beyond music into the sublime.  “My Heart Was Set On You” is an amazing tune – a heartbreaker about forbidden love that works out the way everyone expected all along.  An inexorable tragedy in song that finds the heroine still somewhat in love even from the other side of heartbreak.  This is a pure “WOW” moment.  The transition into “Down With Love” (Hooray For What!) is classic, with Foster offering a quirky/sweet performance that is perhaps the perfect spoiler to the heartbreak that preceded it.

Foster pulls off another “WOW” moment on Duke Ellington’s “I Like The Sunshine”, offering a lyric performance full of vulnerability and hope that are palpable.  For a performer who can belt with such aplomb to be able to pull off a number like this is stunning.  A small lottery conducted by Music Director Michael Rafter leads next to a roof-raising performance of “Defying Gravity” (Wicked).  Dare it be said that Foster pulls it off as if she, herself, originated the role.  Foster puts on the faux ingénue qualities of a classic movie moll for “Late Late Show”, before moving into a sweet and lyric version of John Denver’s “Sunshine On My Shoulders”.  Foster gives up the belt here for a light and airy sound that highlights the utter beauty of her voice.  “Anyone Can Whistle/Being Alive” and “”Come The Wild Wild Weather” are both sweet numbers that serve as a bit of a respite for the singer before building to the big finale.  Foster begins the end with The Beatles’ “Here, There And Everywhere”.  Accompanied by banjo alone, Sutton Foster creates one of those pure musical moments that are steeped in an esoteric and timeless beauty that’s about as impossible to describe as it is to create in the first place.  It’s moments like this that concert goers remember all their lives.  As if that weren’t enough, Foster goes over the moon with “And I Am Telling You (I’m Not Going)” from Dreamgirls.  If Foster blew the roof off earlier in the show, this number couldn’t have left a wall standing.

Sutton Foster is what is considered a triple threat on Broadway.  She sings, she dances and she acts.  But sometimes the term triple threat doesn’t even begin to explain what an actor can do.  Foster’s sense of showmanship combines with an utter authenticity that’s built on smarts, humor, a little bit of grit, and a healthy dose of southern charm and sophistication.  Add to that a voice that can lull you into the ether and then blow you away all in the same breath and you have a singular, rare talent who will be remembered for generations.  An Evening With Sutton Foster – Live At The Café Carlyle is a document and testament to talent, charm and grace to one of the leading ladies of the stage.  Sutton Foster shines bright.  An Evening With Sutton Foster – Live At The Café Carlyle can be nothing less than a Wildy’s World Certified Desert Island Disc.

Rating: 5 Stars (Out of 5)

Learn more about Sutton Foster at http://www.suttonfoster.com/ or on Facebook.  An Evening With Sutton Foster - Live At The Café Carlyle is available from Amazon.com as a  CD or Download.  The album is also available from iTunes.

Original Cast Recording - Ordinary Days by Adam Gwon

Original Cast Recording - Ordinary Days
2010, Sh-K-Boom Records/Ghostlight Records

When The Roundabout Theater Company opened Ordinary Days for its Off Broadway debut in the Fall of 2009 the reaction was immediate. Rave reviews and word-of-mouth seemed to confirm the prescience of The Dramatist Magazine in naming composer Adam Gwon one of the "50 to Watch" in Theater. The 2008 Fred Ebb Award winner for excellent in musical theater songwriting has opened eyes and ears with a modern musical theater writing style that maintains the classic elements and feel of Broadway. Ordinary Days so impressed Rodgers & Hammerstein Theatricals that they purchased the performance rights to the show. On September 21, 2010 Ghostlight Records released the original cast recording of Ordinary Days, featuring Lisa Brescia (Claire), Hunter Foster (Jason), Jared Gertner (Warren) and Kate Wetherhead (Deb).

Listening to Ordinary Days you'd swear that Adam Gwon was raised on a healthy diet of John Robert Brown and William Finn, as the show sounds like it could be a collaboration between the two. Ordinary Days explores the lives of four young adults living in New York City as they navigate the difficulties of life, love and the ever shifting platforms of life expectations and reality. Ordinary Days opens with "One By One By One", setting the mark for idealism as Warren's idealism about his job quickly turns to frustration and then resolution about where he wants to be. Deb is introduced in "Don't Wanna Be Here" as someone who is never happy where she lands.

Jason takes the leap of faith in moving in with Claire in "The Space Between", while "Let Things Go" explores Claire's inflexibility as highlighted by the process of beginning to share her space with Jason. Meanwhile Deb's life is falling apart; the notes for her dissertation are lost, and she must beg for an extension in "Dear Professor Thompson (Part 1)" and later for an exception in Part 2. "Life Story" breaks up the two pleas with rumination on lost mementos and the loss these memories represent to those without them. It's a surprisingly apt perspective; the sort of song that's likely to be performed outside the bounds of the show.

"I'm Trying" represents a relationship in trouble, as the participants look outside of themselves to make things better. In this case the focus is a list of ten things to do before you leave New York. This works for a while but works in many ways to expose their differences more than bring them together. The four cross paths at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Jason is trying to relight the fire with Claire, while Warren, who has found Deb's dissertation notes, invites her to meet him at the Met to return them. Warren wants to get to know Deb, as he's enthralled with the passion and fire he sees in her notes. Deb initially rejects the concept, but Warren's perspective on Monet opens her eyes to the type of person he is.

Meanwhile Jason and Claire are beginning to see where their paths diverge. Jason ruminates over his "Favorite Places" and the one he's never been (Claire's Heart). The song is a brilliant moment, and Hunter Foster places it perfectly. "Sort-Of Fairytale" is first hint of catalyst for change for Deb; coffee at Starbucks with Warren. Deb is quick to judge Warren for his lack of a grand life plan, only soon to realize that her plans are full of holes ("Big Picture"). "Fine" finds Jason and Claire walking together in the rain on the way to a family event. It's the falling out you've known was coming all along, with Jason proposing as a close to the fight. Claire "accepts" before she realizes what he's said, and then runs off leaving him standing in the rain.

"Hundred-Story City" finds the relationship between Jason and Claire pushed to the brink due to Claire's inability to find happiness. This idea is presented as an archetype for dreams in a city that can run roughshod over the best of intentions. "Calm" finds Deb losing it in a meeting with a professor and running blindly into the Penn Station and on a train for New Jersey. Getting off at a random stop she puts down a deposit on a house because it's calm but quickly realizes it's so calm it will drive her mad. This becomes the beginning of a realization that running won't solve her problems, although this doesn't fully materialize for a bit. "Life Story (Reprise)" revisits Warren as he is losing faith in his plans but is given a sudden lift as Deb calls. "Gotta Get Out" is a random taxi ride, a flight of fancy that leads to perspective. It's a grab for control that leads Claire to realize she has control over her life and doesn't need to keep fighting for it.

"Rooftop Duet/Falling" finds perspective for Warren and Deb, with both realizing, in effect, that by letting go of their dreams they will be realized. This is accomplished in the imagery of a fall of paper from far above the city. This event flows downstream and affects Claire and Jason. She finally opens up to Jason about a love lost and how she is finally ready to move on. It's an amazing tune and has that air of magic that marks a great musical moment and flows into a promise for the future ("I'll Be Here"). Ordinary Days closes with the rather enjoyable "Beautiful", a sort of musical moral. The only problem here is that the moral has been so well drawn in the lines of the musical itself that the song feels redundant at best; a cynical bit of preaching at worst. It's as if Gwon either hasn't trusted what's come before to convey this message, or doesn't trust the audience to get it. Either way, it's a pretty afterthought that's unnecessary.

Aside from one minor misstep, Adam Gwon proves himself to be the real deal with Ordinary Days. The Original Cast Recording is exquisitely cast and has a magical flow. What's more, you can listen to the soundtrack and actually have a clear idea of the story. From a songwriting perspective there's not much more you can ask from a Broadway score. Ordinary Days is a great introduction to Adam Gwon, and seems a likely harbinger of amazing work to come. Don't miss out on the original cast recording of Ordinary Days. If you've lived in New York City, or if you've even been in a relationship then you'll likely see some of yourself or the ones you love(d) in Ordinary Days. That's the primal element of its appeal, and the essential character of Adam Gwon’s songwriting that speaks to theater fans of all ages.

Rating: 4.5 Stars (Out of 5)

Learn more about Adam Gwon at http://www.adamgwon.com/ or www.myspace.com/adamgwon.  Learn more about Ordinary Days at Sh-K-Boom Records, where you can purchase the cast recording on CD.  Ordinary Days is also available on CD from Ordinary Days, and digitally from iTunes.