It was a busy time to try to catch Sutton Foster for a Washington Post Q&A in advance of her appearance last weekend with the National Symphony Orchestra for their opening night gala. She was already on the set of “Younger” for its second season on TV Land and fitting in at least a couple of stage performances a month. The two time Tony winner is also in a slasher movie out next month called “Gravy.” So we had an email exchange. Here’s some of that conversation.
How has television acting encroached on your stage performances?
I truly think that television/camera ‘acting’ is the same as stage ‘acting’ – it’s all about telling a story, communicating and creating strong believable and relatable characters. With any new genre that you tackle, you just learn new skills. Performing live on stage is very different than being on camera because it’s live. Anything can happen. You can’t yell ‘Cut!’ and start over.
You also have a large amount of people that are part of the show as well – the audience. There is nothing like performing live. You have to be available, on your toes, open and willing to go with whatever is going to happen in that moment and on that particular night.
What is in store for Liza for its second season of “Younger”?
I have no idea yet! I haven’t received any of the scripts yet.
What can you say about the film “Gravy” coming out next month? It seems like a departure for you to say the least.
It was a crazy awesome experience. I’m always interested in doing things that are outside of the box and unexpected and this definitely was.
Are you still teaching? Is that something you hope to continue?
Yes! I actually co-teach a Skype with the senior musical theatre students at Ball State University. I teach a ‘cabaret course’ where we create a cabaret show – usually based around a composer’s work – and they perform it in Indianapolis in January and at Joe’s Pub in New York in March.
The rest of the interview can be seen here.