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New York Pops: Sutton Foster “One Night Only”
By Elliot Rush On March 13th, Sutton Foster, one of Broadway’s reigning leading ladies, made a remarkable return to the stage of Carnegie Hall as a guest of The New York Pops, just five days before her 40th Birthday. In what became her penultimate number, Sutton told the packed crowd that she is going to divert from the printed program and sing a song that she now feels mature enough to sing. What else could that be? “Rose’s Turn” from Gypsy, of course, one of the greatest show-stoppers of all time and Sutton did not disappoint. She may not be the ideal musical theater actress to play the character of Rose, at least not yet, but she did belt it out as great as the best of them and she brought down the house. The elated audience cheered and gave Sutton the first of three standing ovations. They also sang Happy Birthday to her and for that short period, the 2800 seat theater became very intimate. Sutton connects extremely well with her audience and the love over-flowed back and forth. The evening was a love-fest. Sutton Foster made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2005 as part of The New York Pops Birthday Gala and returned again in 2008 for a concert celebrating the lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein II. This particular night, however, was specifically designed to highlight her career and it was put together by the multi-talented diva along with The New York Pop’s celebrated musical director Steven Reinke. Sutton brought along a couple of friends to perform with her on stage and this blissful evening of song and one tap dance flew by much too quickly. The New York Pops orchestra started the evening off with the Overture from Anything Goes, performing a glorious arrangement by Bill Elliott, the orchestrator of the 2011 Tony Award winning revival that starred Sutton. What a pleasure to hear this music played by a 74 piece orchestra. Cole Porter never sounded better with the orchestra also performing wonderful arrangements of “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” and “Begin the Beguine.” Sutton gave the audience two numbers from Anything Goes, the title song and “I Get A Kick Out of You,” the second show for which she won a Tony Award. The first half of the program included some
folk music; “Ashokan Farewell” by Jay Ungar featuring the concert mistress and
second violin and John Denver’s “Sunshine on My Shoulders,” sung softly and
beautifully by Sutton. She dedicated her performance of this song to her
mother who passed away in 2014 and was a huge fan of John Denver. The first of Sutton’s friends to perform was Joshua Henry, a co-star of hers in last season’s Violet on Broadway. Joshua performed a stirring rendition of Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” and was next joined on stage by Sutton, bringing an upbeat close to the first half of the concert with “Fit As A Fiddle (and Ready for Love),” a rousing song and tap dance that sent the audience out for intermission on a high. The second half of Sutton’s evening opened with the Overture to Thoroughly Modern Millie, a show for which she won her first Tony Award. It is doubtful there is a better orchestra out there anywhere performing Broadway and popular music. The Thoroughly Modern Millie Overture was followed by another Overture, a compilation of TV Theme Songs and this had a dazzling orchestration by Fred Barton. The audience could be heard shouting out the names of the TV shows from which the theme songs derived. Sutton came back on stage in the second half to sing a duet called “Flight” by Craig Carnelia with her best friend Megan McGinnis and then gave the stage over to Megan who sang “Neverland” from Peter Pan very poignantly. Joshua Henry also returned to sing “Let It Sing,” his big number from the musical Violet. For her final number, Sutton finished up the program with a Stephen Sondheim medley; “Anyone Can Whistle” from Anyone Can Whistle, a song she first sang in an Encores! presentation of the musical back in 2010 and “Being Alive” from Company. This was a very powerful performance and she received Standing Ovation number two Sutton was additionally supported throughout the evening by her own personal musical director and collaborator Michael Rafter who played the piano in the orchestra and arranged several of her numbers. The evening would not have been complete without an encore and that came with the song most audience members were probably expecting to hear her sing: “Gimme, Gimme” from Thoroughly Modern Millie. This is a number Sutton began quietly, built slowly to a full-out belt and then, with arms out-stretched wide, she hit the final note with remarkable power, sustained it indefinitely and, once again, brought down the house. Standing Ovation number three. This was a great night for Sutton. The support she received from the orchestra was nothing less than stellar. Kudos to everyone involved. Without question, The New York Pops are a New York treasure and all of the concerts throughout their performance season are highly anticipated. Here’s looking forward to the next. Friday, April 10, 2015 at 8:00pm Monday, May 4, 2015 at 7:00pm 
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