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at was the year Foster stepped into the limelight, per-
forming front-and-center in concert, putting his own spin on
a litany of his songs (co-written and solo compositions) in a
world tour (and PBS special) called
Hit Man: David Foster and
Friends
.
He’s now back on the road in a new tour, bringing his hits,
his band, and backup singers to Ravinia on August for “An
Intimate Evening with David Foster.” He’s also bringing along
more of his “old friends”—more of the songs he helped put on
the American pop music map. “ e songs feel good,” he says.
B
ORN IN VICTORIA , BRI T ISH COLUMBIA ,
Foster fell in love with music making when he was .
“I had a perfect upbringing,” he says. “My parents
[father Maurice and mother Eleanor May] were great
parents. I have six sisters who all love and adore me. My par-
ents took their life savings and bought me a piano and ampli-
er and let me move to England to join Chuck Berry’s band
when I was . ey had faith that I would not derail my life.
I never did drugs or drink, and I think that’s because I never
wanted to disappoint my parents.
“You meet people in their s nowadays who still don’t
know what they want to do for a living. It’s sad. I guess it’s
corny but true; if you love what you do it will never be work,
right?”
Foster also had “an incredible band teacher in high school,”
who helped, well, foster his love for music. “He let me play
every instrument [in the band] for three months,” Foster says,
“because he recognized that I had talent and wanted a working
knowledge of every instrument. So he let me play the trumpet,
tuba, ute, bassoon, clarinet, everything. I was good enough
that I could keep up with the other kids. Every three months
it was another instrument. I wasn’t great, but I got a working
knowledge of all the instruments.”
at knowledge would help propel him into a successful
and lucrative music career. And to paraphrase that old Ste-
phen Sondheim song, he’s still here. Still succeeding where so
many others have been chewed up and spit out by a cutthroat
business. It’s a success that a ords him the opportunity to
walk away from it all. But only because something new and
exciting came calling.
“I’m happy in my life right now,” he says, con rming
that he is indeed dating actress/singer/Broadway newcomer
Katharine McPhee. [
Foster and McPhee announced their
engagement just as this magazine went to print. –Ed.
] e two
met years ago when he was her mentor on
American Idol
.
“I am nally sort of relaxed and not working quite as hard
as I have been the past,” Foster admits, “though it may not look
like that if you look at what I’m doing.”
What Foster is doing is creating his rst Broadway musi-
cal, a show based on the
s’ wide-eyed, Jazz Age apper
animated cartoon character Betty Boop. A creative team of
Broadway A-listers has signed on for the project,
including director/choreographer Jerry Mitchell, whose work
includes the recently premiered
Pretty Woman: e Musical
,
the Gloria Estefan bio-musical
On Your Feet
, and Cyndi Lauper
and Harvey Fierstein’s critically acclaimed
Kinky Boots
(all
three of which had their pre-Broadway tryouts in Chicago).
Veteran television scribe Sally Robinson is writing the book,
and Foster’s score will boast lyrics by Tony Award nominee
Susan Birkenhead.
“It’s my rst try at Broadway,” Foster says of the musical,
whose subject matter demanded a very original story. “ ere
never was a story because [Betty Boop] is a two-minute-at-a-
time cartoon. I knew I wanted to make a step toward Broadway
and musicals, and honestly Betty Boop was the rst person to
ask me. [
Laughs
.] So we had to create the story. It’s currently
waiting for the script’s nal punch-up. And then hopefully we’ll
jump into a reading and then a workshop.”
e stage musical process has included an eye-opening
learning curve for Foster. “I have had Susan working with me
for the last ve or six years. She has
taught me a lot about what
the songs are sup-
posed to do, which
is to propel the
show forward,”
Foster contin-
ues. “Look, I’m
in New York
[he has set up
a homefront in
the city] because
I don’t want to
be that LA guy.
You know,
that
guy
. e ‘schmuck-
LA-songwriter-who-
thinks-he-can-get-a-hit-
on-Broadway’
guy.
RAVINIA MAGAZINE | JULY 23 – AUGUST 5, 2018
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