Sutton Foster to return to Broadway in ‘The Music Man’ revival with Hugh Jackman

Get ready to meet the new Marian the Librarian.

Sutton Foster is joining the Broadway revival of “The Music Man,” producer Scott Rudin announced on Monday.

After a six-year absence from the Broadway stage, the two-time Tony Award winner will star in the new staging of Meredith Willson’s beloved classic, alongside Hugh Jackman.

Foster will play Marian Paroo, the River City librarian and piano teacher who attempts to thwart “Professor” Harold Hill (Jackman), the charismatic con man who poses as a boys-marching-band organizer and then runs with the money he collects for musical instruments and uniforms.

That is, if she can sideline her romantic feelings for him.

“There were bells on a hill but I never heard them ringing,” Foster said in a statement, referring to the musical’s closing number. “No, I never heard them at all. Till there was Hugh.”

Hugh Jackman on stage at the Brit Awards 2019 at the O2 Arena, London, UK. Photographer: Victoria Jones/TNS

Foster won her first Tony in 2002 for her breakout turn in “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” and again in 2011 for “Anything Goes.”

The Broadway mainstay — who also collected Tony nominations in 2005 for “Little Women,” in 2006 for “The Drowsy Chaperone,” in 2009 for “Shrek: The Musical” and in 2014 for “Violet” — has spent the last five years leading Darren Star’s comedy series “Younger,” which will air its sixth season on Paramount Network.

The original 1957 production of “The Music Man” ran for 1,375 performances and won five Tony Awards, including for best musical.

Its cast album also won the first-ever Grammy Award for that category, and stayed on the Billboard album charts for 245 weeks. In 1962, the musical was adapted into a movie starring Robert Preston and Shirley Jones.

The revival is scheduled to begin performances on Sept. 9, 2020, and officially open on Oct, 22, 2020, at a Shubert theater to be announced later. It is directed by Jerry Zaks, with choreography by Warren Carlyle.

Tribune News Service