Sutton Foster

Sutton Lenore Foster (born March 18, 1975) is an American actress, singer and dancer.

Foster was born on March 18, 1975 in Statesboro, Georgia, and raised in Troy, Michigan.

At the age of 15, she was a contestant on the reality competition show Star Search and also auditioned for the cast of The Mickey Mouse Club.

She left Troy High School before graduating (she received her diploma via correspondence courses) to join the national tour of The Will Rogers Follies directed by Tommy Tune.

She then attended Carnegie Mellon University for one year, but left to pursue a theatrical career full-time.

After touring in the role of Sandy Dumbrowski in the musical Grease throughout 1995, Foster transferred to the Broadway production in 1996.

She left to appear in the ensemble of the Broadway musical The Scarlet Pimpernel in 1997, and after that closed she returned as the Star to Be in the revival of Annie.

In 1998, Foster appeared in What the World Needs Now at the Old Globe Theatre, before she began touring with Les Misérables as Eponine Thenardier.

She then understudied the same role on Broadway in 2000.

Foster left Les Misérables to join the ensemble of Thoroughly Modern Millie in its pre-Broadway run at the La Jolla Playhouse.

Original leading lady Kristin Chenoweth landed a television series shortly after rehearsals began and was replaced with Erin Dilly as Millie and Foster as her understudy.

After apparent clashes between the creative team, a "mutual" decision was made for Dilly to leave the production.

With only nine days remaining before the first preview, Foster took over the role of Millie Dilmount.

During a hiatus (before Millie was set to open on Broadway), Foster appeared in Dorian at Goodspeed Musicals, The Three Musketeers at the American Musical Theatre of San Jose, and South Pacific at the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera.

She is known for her work on the Broadway stage, for which she has won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical twice, in 2002 for her role as Millie Dillmount in Thoroughly Modern Millie, and in 2011 for her performance as Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes, a role which she reprised in 2021 for a production in London and for which she received a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical.

Her other Broadway credits include Grease, Little Women, The Drowsy Chaperone, Young Frankenstein, Shrek the Musical, Violet, The Music Man, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Thoroughly Modern Millie finally opened on Broadway at the Marquis Theatre in 2002, to positive reviews.

The New York Daily News reviewer said: "newcomer Sutton Foster, who has the pert look, the silver voice and the dazzling legwork to make an extraordinarily winning Millie."

Clive Barnes, reviewing for the New York Post wrote "Newcomer Sutton Foster's own star turn as Millie is perfectly charming, but as a star she doesn't twinkle, glitter or light up Broadway like a Christmas tree defying a July noon. But she has a good voice and is cutely agreeable."

The Newsday reviewer wrote: "She has a smile that may remind you of Mary Tyler Moore, the gawky comic precision of the young Carol Burnett, the lyricism of a romantic heroine and a smallish but vibrant voice as accurate as it is expressive. As [Millie], another of New York's prototypical small-town girls with big-city dreams, [Sutton Foster] appears unfazed by the burden of a character created onscreen by Julie Andrews. The newcomer takes the big stage with an uninhibited what-the-heck comfort level and the discipline to go with her instincts."

Time Magazine wrote: "she's [Sutton Foster] got the full package: girlish gawkiness and Broadway brass, the legs and the lungs. Foster is a big reason the show is just about the cutest thing to hit Broadway since Annie's dimples, with perkily retro songs by Jeanine Tesori and clever staging by director Michael Mayer..."

Foster went on to win the 2002 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical, and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical for her performance.

During the run, Foster appeared in concert versions of Chess and Funny Girl, before leaving in 2004.

Upon leaving, Foster did a concert version of Snoopy! The Musical and returned to the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera for a production of Me and My Girl to wrap up the year.

In May 2005, Foster co-starred as Jo March opposite Maureen McGovern as Marmee in the musical adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel Little Women, for which she was nominated for her second Tony Award.

The production closed after just a few months.

The musical had a pre-Broadway run at the Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles in November to December 2005.

Her performance earned her a third Tony nomination.

She returned to Broadway at the Marquis Theatre in May 2006 in The Drowsy Chaperone, a spoof of 1920s musicals.

She played Janet van de Graaff, a famous Broadway starlet who opts to forgo a stage career in favor of married life.

Foster left the musical in 2007 and co-starred in Mel Brooks' musical adaptation of his film Young Frankenstein as the Swedish yodeling fräulein Inga, first at the Paramount Theatre and then on Broadway from October 2007 to July 2008.

In 2007, Foster guest-starred on the children's musical puppet show Johnny and the Sprites and in a three-episode story arc on the HBO sitcom Flight of the Conchords.

She left the show to play Princess Fiona in Shrek the Musical, which opened on Broadway on December 14, 2008.

For this role, Foster won her second Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical and was nominated for her fourth Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical.

She played her final performance on January 3, 2010, when the show closed on Broadway.

On television, Foster played the lead role in the short-lived ABC Family comedy-drama Bunheads from 2012 to 2013.

In May 2012, she received an honorary doctorate from Ball State University, "in recognition of her outstanding career in theater, television and music and for her contributions to the educational experience and professional growth of Ball State students."

From 2015 to 2021, she starred in the TV Land comedy-drama Younger.

In May 2019, she also received an honorary doctorate from Boston Conservatory at Berklee, who also initiated a merit scholarship in her name to be awarded to one student every four years.

Her older brother, Hunter Foster, is also an actor.