Foster was born in Statesboro, Georgia, on March 18, 1975 and raised in Troy, Michigan. At the age of fifteen, she was a contestant on the television show Star Search (competing against future Broadway actor Richard Blake) and also auditioned for the cast of The Mickey Mouse Club. She left Troy High School, where she had been active in the Troy Theatre Ensemble, before her senior year (she received her diploma via correspondence courses) to be in 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. Foster’s big break was reminiscent of 42nd Street when, during rehearsals of the pre-Broadway run of Thoroughly Modern Millie at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego, she was pulled from the chorus to replace the leading lady. Any apprehension about an unknown playing the lead in a nearly $10 million Broadway production was proven unfounded when she opened at the Marquis Theatre to primarily rave reviews. Foster went on to win a Tony Award in 2002 for the Broadway production of Thoroughly Modern Millie. In 2005, Foster starred as Jo March opposite Maureen McGovern as Marmee in the short-lived musical adaptation of the Louisa May Alcott classic Little Women, for which she was nominated for her second Tony Award. In May 2006, Foster returned to the Marquis Theatre on Broadway in the role of Janet van de Graff, a famous Broadway starlet who opts to forego a stage career in favor of married life, in The Drowsy Chaperone, a spoof of 1920’s musicals, for which she earned her third Tony nomination. Among Foster’s other credits include Eponine in the third U.S. national tour of Les Miserables (a role she had understudied on Broadway) and Sandy in the national tour of Grease. |
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