(upbeat music begins)
- The Broadway Show is back with another stacked episode.
Glad you're here, I'm Tamsen Fadal.
♪ We got trouble (oh, we got trouble) ♪
♪ Right here in River City (right here in River City) ♪
We are on the road to the Tonys
and we're kicking things off with The Music Man.
It's nominated for six Tony Awards,
including Best Revival of a Musical,
Best Actor in a Musical for Hugh Jackman
and Best Actress in a Musical for Sutton Foster.
Let's send it out to Paul Wontorek.
- Thanks, Tamsen.
The Music Man marks Sutton Foster's
seventh Tony Award nomination.
I got to sit down with Marian the Librarian herself
at the stunning, historic Morgan Library and Museum.
(joyful music begins)
Sutton, it's so good to see you.
- It's so good to see you too.
- You are a seven-time Tony Award nominee now,
two-time winner, seven Tony nominations.
Congratulations. - Thank you.
- I feel like this one must feel different in a lot of ways.
- It does actually.
It really means a lot.
Especially after the last couple years,
even just sort of taking on this role
that I was really intimidated and scared about,
it feels particularly special to be recognized.
- It's also been a while.
- It has been a while.
- It's been I think eight years since Violet.
- Yeah, Violet was in 2014.
- You were off being a TV star and doing seven seasons
of Younger, which I loved every episode.
- Thank you.
- But yes, you're back and so it's a nice return.
- A nice return yeah. - Yeah
and your name is really big
on that billboard. - My name is really big
on a billboard that I try to avoid at all costs.
- Really? - [Sutton] Yes. (laughs)
- [Paul] Looking up at that-
- I do, if I take the subway, I am forced to face it
because the 50th street subway is right there.
and I'm like, oh, and it's just so big.
But it was on... that billboard was
up for two years. - The entire pandemic, yes.
- And I refused to look at it.
- Right, do you remember the first time your photo
was on a billboard in Times Square?
- Oh gosh.
It had to have been Millie, right?
- [Paul] I guess so, yeah.
Remember that show?
That was a good show.
- That was good...
20 years ago. - 20 years ago.
That's why this also feels special,
this is the 20th anniversary of your first Tony nomination
and first Tony Award win. - Oh my gosh.
That's so crazy.
- I mean, that show was opening this time of year.
- I know.
- You'd think about how long Music Man
took to get to this moment
and then Millie, it was like, it opened
and then you immediately you won a Tony
a few weeks later. (laughs) - I know, I know.
That was a whirlwind and I really,
I don't even know if I had the capacity
to really appreciate it.
It was all happening so quickly
and I can look back on it now
and have a perspective and go wow, look at that.
Look what happened there.
I think I have a greater sense of gratitude
and appreciation now, especially 'cause it was gone.
So I think with theater nonexistent, you come back to it
and there's not a day that I don't walk into the theater
without being, I'm like, "We're on Broadway!"
We get to do what we love, you know?
And so there's a greater appreciation of every single step.
- But it's a very different world.
It's very different backstage.
- It is. - Your day to day
life is very different now.
What is it like starring on Broadway right now?
Obviously you very publicly got COVID very early in the run
and Mr. Hugh Jackman got COVID. - I did, I got COVID.
Yeah, so we are still living with COVID.
I mean the biggest difference is that
we aren't allowed any backstage guests
so we're in a little bubble.
You know, everyone is really diligent about wearing masks
and you have your little masks and you kind of,
I don't know, people have gone on stage
with our masks on because we are so used to them now
so you just forget. - That's hilarious.
Accidentally just walking? - Of course
and you're like, (gasps), they were saying,
whatever, the Iowa stubborn, you know,
♪ There's a... ♪
They're starting singing, they're going (groans),
slowly ripping off a mask, yeah.
But we've just become so used to it used to it.
Especially when we were rehearsing,
we were rehearsing with masks on, doing big dance numbers
and you're just doing it and you get to,
whatever it takes to do the thing.
I didn't know, I thought, will audiences be different?
Will it somehow...
Will they feel inhibited?
Will they not wanna respond?
But audiences have been incredible
and so responsive and uproarious
and joyful but it feels that way backstage,
I mean onstage and backstage too.
- You are playing Marian the librarian
and here we are - I know.
- And we are at J. Pierpont Morgan's legendary library,
This is a very famous New York City landmark.
- It's incredible, I've never been here.
It's so beautiful.
- [Paul] I'm glad that we were able to bring you here.
This is part of the Morgan Library and Museum.
People should visit it.
Yeah, Marian would lose her mind in here.
- Yes, absolutely.
Yes she would
and she would run a tight ship.
Yeah, she would. (both laugh)
- Yeah, I could picture you on ladders
and doing a whole library number with Hugh Jackman.
- I see it, exactly.
- For the movie, let's do a movie. (laughs)
- Okay.
- Do you think there's a copy of Hooked in here?
- Probably.
Well, there will be someday.
Yeah, oh yeah.
- Your memoir, which I actually loved reading,
so that was one of the projects that you dove into
during the pandemic, during your time at home,
you wrote a really cool, unique memoir.
- Thanks.
- Because it was, what's the subtitle?
Hooked-
- [Sutton] Oh, How Crafting Saved My Life.
- [Paul] How Crafting Saved My Life.
- Yeah, I had this idea.
I'd always wanted to write a book.
It was something... I had this bucket list, as a kid,
I was like, I'm gonna write a book and run a marathon.
Those are the only two I remember,
I haven't run a marathon yet
but I had a very complicated relationship with my mom
and I knew I wanted to tell her story
and my story with her and then after I adopted my daughter,
there was something about how we pass stories
and inherit stories and how we raise our children
and then I was trying to figure out a way
to tie everything together and so I remember
pitching the idea to my agent and saying,
I was like, I have this idea
about telling it through crafting
and through the things I made, I make, or I have made
'cause they all tell stories
and they all are like little time capsules
of certain time periods of my life
and then suddenly when I came up with that concept,
then the story sort of wrote, everything kind of came out.
- I loved it. - Thanks.
- And there's crafting tips
and an interview with Patti LuPone,
throw that in there. - I know.
I'm a huge Patti LuPone fan
and she was instrumental about
why I am doing what I'm doing
and I remember watching her when I was 15-years-old
on the Sondheim Celebration at Carnegie Hall
and just being like, "What is this?
Who is that?"
- [Paul] Yeah, singing Being Alive
from Company. - [Sutton] She sang
Being Alive from Company and I was so obsessed
and I'd met her several times
and we've never had the opportunity to work together,
she knows my name, you know? (laughs)
There's things like that, where you're like,
Patti LuPone knows my name.
So when I was writing the book and I realized,
oh she's such a big part of it,
I sent her a text and said,
would you be up for me interviewing you?
And she said, yes and so we spoke on Zoom for an hour
and she was remarkable.
It was one of the greatest hours of my life.
- And your second Tony Award was actually
for playing Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes
and that was, I know, a role that was intimidating,
partly because of Patti LuPone
because she had played it on Broadway
and I'm sure it was kind of like,
I'm doing a Patti LuPone role.
- Yeah and Reno, I didn't really know
what I had sort of signed up for.
I kind of, I don't know,
I leap a lot in my career without thinking at times.
I mean, I feel the same way about Marian too.
I was like, okay
and then I went, wait a minute, what have I done?
And I did that with Reno
and it took me a while to find her
and I felt like that was a time when I leapt
and then I was like, uh-oh, I'm drowning.
I was like, uh-oh, how do I figure this out?
And then I had this opportunity to play her again
10 years later in London, this past summer on the West End
and that was really cool, to be able to revisit her
10 years later with 10 years of life experience
and to be able to actually sort of step into those shoes
with more confidence and again, enormous gratitude
because it was my first time back on stage after the...
and theater was opening up there
before it was opening up here
and so I felt like this, I was chasing the art,
I was like, I have to be back on stage in some way
and then to be able to revisit her
was really, really, that was a huge gift.
♪ Love all around ♪
♪ But I never heard it singing ♪
- You are a very talented performer.
We've seen you do many things, but I think of
Marian Librarian as a very sort of rigid soprano, ingenue,
I don't immediately think Sutton Foster.
- Me neither. - It was a surprise
when you were cast. - It was a surprise
for me as well.
So I remember getting a call from my agent about it
and they said, they're doing a revival
with Hugh Jackman of The Music Man
and they're talking about you as Marian
and I went, what?
My first reaction, there's probably 20 people
I would cast before me, you know?
I was like, wait, why? That's weird
and then, because that was my first reaction, I went huh.
- Right. - Maybe there's something...
- It intrigues you. - It intrigued me,
yeah, the leap or the challenge
or the, oh maybe there's an opportunity there
or maybe there's another way in or another way to see her
and so right after I was cast,
I was like maybe I should watch the movie. (laughs)
So we watched the movie and I was like,
oh, I see, I see something here
I saw a backstory and I was like, oh, she's got a past.
There's something going on, I was like,
oh, there's something to work with here
and then it was two years later
until we started rehearsal.
Working with Jerry Zaks and working with Hugh
and they were talking about this other version
of "My White Knight."
Long ago, there was this extended version
of "My White Knight" that had this huge patter section
in the start because the way I knew "My White Knight"
was just the traditional sort of ballady thing
and then as soon as they introduced that,
I was like, oh, okay. - That was your end.
- It was kinda, but then oddly enough,
I was still sort of freaked out by how she sounded.
How do I find her voice, you know?
And we played with keys and all these things
but I still felt like, oh, I'm supposed to be this.
I'm supposed to fit into this mold
and then oddly with playing Reno again in London,
I was walking to the theater
and I was like, well, why can't Marian...
Why can't the end of My White Knight be big?
Why does it have to be that?
And I was like, no, why can't she have...
I was like, that's one of my strengths,
this is the strongest moment for her vocally in the show
and so I came in to poor Patrick, our music director
and I was like, I think I wanna change the end of this
and I came in and to his credit and to everybody,
they were like, let's try it
and so we just tried all these different ways
and that song just kept evolving and changing and growing
and then it was this thing I felt like I was wrestling
but then I was like, oh, so is Marian
and then the minute I let go of trying to be something else
and just tried to find my way in, then it just unfolded.
It's one of my proudest characters
I've ever sort of found, is with her.
- Yeah, I was in the audience and I was like,
yeah, gimme, gimme that Sutton Foster ending.
Give it to me. (Sutton laughs)
(joyful music begins)
We have a certain international movie star
to talk about, Mr. Hugh Jackman.
You actually were starring in Thoroughly Modern Millie
when he first made his Broadway debut in The Boy From Oz.
- Oh, yeah.
- It was the same, you were on Broadway
with your Tony Award, Tony Award winner
and some upstart showed up to do The Boy From Oz
and you met, you've met a few times.
- Yeah, he came to see Millie.
I have a photo, I don't remember,
it's like I have a photo, I have photo evidence
and we've met several times
but we had never really officially worked together.
I did a couple workshops of Greatest Showman with him.
So I met him then, but only for
a couple days here and there.
- Right and then you had a great moment on the Tony Awards.
- [Sutton] Yes. - [Paul] That great moment.
- [Sutton] Yes. - [Paul] When he was hosting.
- Yeah, he picked me up.
I have a photo, we have again, photo evidence of that.
(laughs) - Yeah.
By all accounts, he is the nicest guy,
the hardest-working guy.
It's a little dull.
I mean, it's a little dull, how perfect he seems.
Anything I need to know about this guy?
Or is there anything you were surprised by?
Maybe did anything surprise you about actually
working with him now every night?
- I forget that he's like...
- Hugh Jackman.
- Yeah. - Mr. Hugh Jackman.
- Sometimes I have to- - international, Wolverine.
- Yeah, I forget it, I forget that.
He would do this when we were collecting for Broadway Cares
- You made a lot of money for Broadway Cares, yeah.
- We raised so much money.
It was unbelievable, the generosity of people.
I'm blown away by it.
People would call out, they'd be like,
"Oh, Wolverine!" and he would do his Wolverine
and I'd be like, oh my God and I would freak out
and I would have to run and hide in the corner
and I was like, I would just forget, I'm like, wait
'cause I just sort of see this guy,
I think one of his superpowers is that he's so disarming.
He immediately puts everyone at ease.
He doesn't make anything about him.
He's so incredibly generous to everyone around him
and so you're just like, oh, oh okay.
So like the greatest thing that's happened
out of this whole experience is that I have a new friend
who happens to be Hugh Jackman (laughs)
which is super weird but he's just...
to Emily, to my daughter, it's Uncle Hugh.
So, you know, she has no idea.
She was like, "Is Uncle Hugh coming?"
Or whatever and I'm like, yeah, yeah.
He's just part of the family, you know?
- Well, I wanted to ask you about
going through this experience with Emily
because she's old enough now to,
and she can obviously see the show.
- Yeah, she was with us in London obviously
but she saw seven West End shows.
- I've seen zero.
(both laugh)
'Cause I was very busy. - What's her favorite?
She really liked Frozen.
- Oh, okay.
- She was going through a Frozen phase
but Hairspray was running there so they saw Hairspray.
She saw Anything Goes like four times.
- Wow. - I know,
and then she saw Joseph and Frozen
and Singing in the Rain
and Lion King, she saw a ton of stuff.
I invited her to the opening of Music Man
but she wanted to see it before the opening
just to make sure she liked it.
(both laugh)
But she said a couple of profound things.
She's seen it now three times I think
and the last time she saw it, she said,
"Mommy, at first..."
She was talking about Harold Hill,
she goes, "At first you only see his head,
but then you see his heart."
- Profound.
- Meredith Wilson would love that.
- Would love that and then she goes,
"Mommy, at first you didn't like it
when he threw the library cards
but then you threw the library cards."
(Sutton laughs)
And I was like, "Yeah."
She's so funny, but she really likes it
and then she'll wave in the audience
and she goes, did you see me waving?
I said, did you see me waving?
And she goes, did the kids see me?
Like she really wants to make sure
that she knows that the kids...
- That she's out there supporting everybody.
- Yeah and she really wants to
and she FaceTimes sometimes
with Benjamin who plays Winthrop.
He reads her a bed time story, it's so sweet.
At half hour, they're talking over FaceTime.
This is parenthood.
- But I love this for you because I remember Sutton Foster
inThoroughly Modern Millie, this kind of scared girl
trying to be what everyone said she was, right?
This Tony winner and now I love that you're going
through this totally different,
the journey of those 20 years, it's amazing.
- Oh yeah, I have a whole stack of children's books
in my dressing room and she watches me put on my makeup
and then she's like, "Is the show started?"
And I'm like, 'Here, come." They listen to the train
and they listen to the whole beginning
and then I go, I have to wait until Uncle Hugh enters
and so we wait for Uncle Hugh's entrance
and I go, "Okay, goodnight, I gotta go, bye-bye!"
- So she must be excited that Mommy and Uncle Hugh
are both going to the Tony Awards.
Does she even understand
what the Tony awards are? - I tried to explain it
to her today but she was more interested
in singing a song about Paw Patrol.
She really didn't care, which is best.