Broadway veterans and Tony Award–winners Kelli O’Hara and Sutton Foster will be at Wolf Trap on August 1 for an evening of showtunes, classic songs, and more, intertwined with lots of banter and stories. O’Hara and Foster spoke talk with Northern Virginia Magazine about their upcoming show, how the two met, and what they enjoy about the DC area.
Tell us more about your show at Wolf Trap. What can audiences expect?
O’Hara: Sutton Foster and I put together a duet show for Carnegie Hall a while back inspired by the great duet shows of Carol Burnett and Julie Andrews. We decided to pay homage to them while also creating our own show, celebrating our friendship and careers. We have wonderfully orchestrated duets as well as dance numbers and comedy sketches, including new compositions and classic songs from our respective careers.
Foster: Our evening is really an homage to [Julie Andrews and Carol Burnett] and a celebration of each other. Kelli and I have known each other for many, many years and yet we’ve never worked together. So we jokingly say we had to create our own show just so we could work together.
Do you have a favorite song you duet on?
O’Hara: Carol and Julie were famous for their medleys, so we made one of our own from songs of the 1990s. It’s just a blast to perform with Sutton and include fun choreography by Eric Sciotto.
Foster: Oh, I don’t want to give too much away, but there is a pretty awesome number in the second act inspired by a series of mega medleys that Julie and Carol created. They did these mega medleys and Kelli and I have decided to do one as well and it is my favorite number in the entire show.
How did you two become friends?
O’Hara: Sutton and I have never done an actual Broadway show together, but we have come up in the business together for over 20 years, performed in countless galas together, and have many mutual friends. We have been cooking up this idea for years!
Foster: Although Kelli and I have actually never worked together, we did a reading together of a pre-Broadway tryout of Little Women back in 2003. We have become friends primarily just by being in the business together, but we’ve become much better friends because of creating the show together. It is so awesome being in a room with her creating a show and I get to sing with her. There’s nobody like Kelli O’Hara.
What projects are you both working on later this year?
O’Hara: In addition to more stops on the tour of this show, which we are very excited about, I am working on a couple of TV shows. I’ll also be doing solo concerts and will be back on Broadway in the Noel Coward play Fallen Angels opposite Rose Byrne at the Roundabout Theatre Company next spring.
Foster: I’m traveling a lot performing concerts with Kelli and also solo shows with my music director, Mr. Michael Rafter, who is also performing with us at Wolf Trap. And I’ll be back at Cafe Carlyle again this winter. I’m sort of in the process of figuring out what’s next beyond that.
Do you have any favorite places to visit in the DC area?
O’Hara: DC has always been a very special place for me, from the first time I visited on a middle school trip to the many times I have performed on The Mall for the Fourth of July or Memorial Day celebrations, or at the Kennedy Center Honors. I am hopeful and look forward to those types of events again in a few years, and coming back to Wolf Trap is the most special treat. I was there with Adrienne Warren in 2022 and had a wonderful time.
Foster: I love the museums. I remember coming to DC for the first time when I was a kid and then again on a field trip in eighth grade. And every time I come, I always try to go see something new. One of my favorite things to do is to go running, and I really enjoy jogging around DC and seeing all the memorials. I was able to spend a couple weeks there when I was in town with Les Mis, and I’m just looking forward to discovering something new this time.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Feature image courtesy Jenny Anderson
