Will and Grace star Mullally – who had been cast as Reno – had been forced to withdraw from the show due to injury. Would she be keen to step in? “And of course I didn’t realise that theatre was opening sooner here than in the US,” Foster says. “In New York it’s starting again in September, I think. That is when things are coming back, so I was not aware [theatres were open here]. And I was like: ‘They are coming back?’”

She says: “I never thought that what I did for a living would not exist. None of us predicted the pandemic, but I never thought what we do would go away. It was so shocking and it has affected the entire world and the fact theatre is coming back is incredibly emotional. I said to my husband: ‘I just had a crazy phone call’ and he said: “Let’s go to London’ and I was like: ‘All right.’”

So her husband, screenwriter Ted Griffin, and four-year-old daughter Emily upped and left to move to the UK for the summer run of Anything Goes. And with a decade between playing Reno in New York, Foster, now 46, is hoping she can revisit the role “with a different lens, a different maturity”.

Anything Goes – the London version

Indeed, she’s treating it as a new production. “I have done the show before, but I am the newbie here,” she says. “I walked in for the first day of rehearsals and was the new kid, so I wanted to be enormously respectful that this is based on that 2011 production, but it’s a new cast and new company and we are creating this together, today.”

Foster says there’s a “chip” in her brain – “a little file that opens” – and her body starts to remember what it had done in the previous production. On Broadway, she found a way to tackle the eight-minute mega-title number – including its iconic tap-dancing sequence – without her “face exploding”.

Foster compares it to running a marathon, in that she is keen to pace it and says – during rehearsals here – that “coolness and how to pace it” all came back. She says that being a mother means she is more tired, but then points to the performance Jennifer Lopez and Shakira gave at the Super Bowl in 2020 and finds renewed inspiration. “I think about them all the time and think if they can do it, I can do it,” she laughs. “They are total badasses.”

She adds: “I said to my husband: ‘I don’t know how much longer I will physically be able to do something like this, so I must do it.’ So the opportunity to come to London and revisit this world and frankly to be on stage again in a rehearsal room…” she trails off before coming back with: “This year has been so devastating for our industry and the opportunity to create and sing and look at people – their faces – is so joyous. It’s just a delight.”

Anything Goes marks Foster’s return to theatre, having last appeared in a full-length run in Sweet Charity in 2016. She has been more focused on television recently, but did a small run of Into the Woods in 2019 at the Hollywood Bowl.

Motherhood and performing

Four years ago she became a mum, having adopted her daughter, Emily. “Motherhood has changed me enormously,” she says. “I am raising a kid, you know. I am raising a kid and I want her to be better than me. I am so glad I waited until my 40s, because I felt I was ready to be a parent then. I am sure I make mistakes every day but it changes everything.”

She says she chose to do Into the Woods in 2019 because she could take Emily with her. Like other parents who work – particularly in the arts – she admits to feeling a little guilty about what she does.

“I equal parts love being a working mother but then I am guilty about what I do. I am also proud that what I do for a living is something I am so passionate about and I love what I do, so I am proud she gets to see mum do something she really wants to do,” Foster says, adding: “I am her mother and that is the most important role I have ever played, but she knows I have my own life… I wish that of her as well.”

For Foster, being a mum helps keep her in check. “Being an actor, you can get so caught up in your egocentric shit,” she says. “But then you come home and a tiny little human runs and jumps in your arms and you are like, okay…”

During her time in London, the family has been having what she calls “can’t-say-no dates”. These are when each member of the family gets to choose what the others do and no one is allowed to say no.

“I fight hard in my life to find balance and perspective and that is what motherhood has done for me,” she says, before laughing: “Not so much when she wakes me up at 4.40am. I have not done a full eight-shows-a-week run on that before. But it’s hard to negotiate with a four-year-old.”

Foster began performing at four, taking dance classes to burn off some “untamed energy”. She found that in class she was good at “following directions” and enjoyed being on stage – and in particular, being at the front.

Aged 10, she began doing community theatre and, shortly after, auditioned for a production of Annie that was looking for dancers. Foster had never sung before this point, but went in and auditioned, singing Maybe.

Her mum tells her the whole room went quiet when they heard her sing and Foster found herself being cast in the lead role. “I had a natural talent with zero training, technique or craft,” she says, adding that she had “a lot of energy and volume but no nuance”.

From there, she took part in musicals at school and was involved in local theatre, when – at the age of 17 – she was watching the Tony Awards and something clicked. On the screen was a performance of Cy Coleman’s The Will Rogers Follies.

“It had 18 showgirls, who were all tall with big teeth and it was the first time I had seen myself or a version of myself and said: ‘I can do what they are doing’,” she recalls. “It was a moment.”

About a month later, her mum found an advert for a tour of the show, which was auditioning locally. The advert said they wanted 18-year-olds, but her mum told her to go in and tell them she would be 18 on her next birthday. It worked, because Foster got a callback to sing and dance for Cy Coleman and at 17 she was cast in the tour, spending her senior year of high school with the production, helping her to get an Equity card.

After that she went to college for a year, but dropped out and began getting work in ensembles – Grease, Annie, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Les Misérables… “and then Millie happened,” she says. That’s to say, the show Thoroughly Modern Millie.

‘This year has been devastating for our industry, and the opportunity to create and sing and look at people is so joyous’

Breaking Broadway

The lead in the production became sick, with Foster asked to step in and rehearse for her. Shortly after, the lead left the show with Foster taking over – and her rise to Broadway leading lady began.

“It was a blur, but I was so green and naive and I was a leaper,” she says. “I would leap into jobs and then be like: ‘Shit, I am drowning.’ But it served me well in many ways, as I didn’t put the brakes on and say: ‘I am not ready.’ I was just leaping before I was ready and learning as I was going.”

Her performance in Thoroughly Modern Millie earned her the best actress in a musical award at the 2002 Tonys and put her on the map as one of Broadway’s brightest stars.

Performances in The Drowsy Chaperone followed, as well as in Young Frankenstein and Shrek the Musical, playing Fiona, which brought her fourth Tony nomination.

But it was her stint in Anything Goes in 2011 that was to earn her the second Tony award and plenty of plaudits for her performance. Despite this, Foster says she initially struggled to tackle Reno – given she is so far removed from her own personality.

“I worked with Kathleen and an acting coach when I was first tackling Reno,” she says. “Reno is unapologetic and owns her power. On stage I am an extrovert and play powerful characters but I am not like that in real life. I am not showy at all, I am kind of an introvert. So playing Reno was really scary at first and I was sort of apologising for it. I was afraid of her and afraid to take up space.”

She says she had to put affirmations on her make-up mirror, with words such as “badass” and “devil” on to help her tap into the character. It clearly worked, because Foster won all the major theatre awards for her performance.

And word of mouth about her skill has reached the UK too, when – even a decade later – the excitement of her coming to London was palpable. Until that video emerged. And for Foster herself, it’s clearly been a learning curve.

I ask her how she is feeling about the incident now. “I feel there is always work to be done,” she says, her tone notably more subdued than at other times in our conversation. “I feel that it’s always important to be accountable for your choices in your life. But I also know who I am and what I stand for and I am very proud to be part of this production and I am very much looking forward to bringing theatre back and the joy that comes with it. Because that is why we do this.”

And now she is just trying to focus on the task at hand – that of taking to the stage and giving UK audiences her best Reno Sweeney and the magic of live theatre. “It’s a joyful, wonderful thing and that is why I perform. I love to do it. I love to sing, I love performing and I love being on stage,” she says. “It’s everything.”

CV Sutton Foster

Born: Georgia, 1975
Landmark productions:
• Thoroughly Modern Millie, Marquis Theatre, Broadway (2002)
• The Drowsy Chaperone, Marquis Theatre (2006)
• Young Frankenstein, Hilton Theatre, Broadway (2009)
• Shrek, Broadway Theatre (2008)
• Anything Goes, Stephen Sondheim Theatre, Broadway (2011)
• Sweet Charity, The Pershing Square Signature Center, Off-Broadway (2016)
Awards:
• Tony award for best performance by an actress in a musical for Thoroughly Modern Millie (2002)
• Tony for best performance by an actress in a leading role for Anything Goes (2011)
• Drama Desk award for outstanding actress in a musical for Anything Goes (2011)
• Outer Critics Circle awards for outstanding actress in a musical for Thoroughly Modern Millie (2002), Shrek the Musical (2009) and Anything Goes (2011)
Agent: Creative Artists Agency

Anything Goes is at London’s Barbican Theatre from July 23 to October 17. For more information go to: barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2021/event/anything-goes