BWW Interviews: BUNHEADS' Sutton Foster Talks Co-Star Hunter, Ukuleles & Upcoming 'Broadway Audition'

He definitely shows up again in the finale, unexpectedly he pops up. And then, praying that we get more episodes to come, I know for a fact he'll be back.

That's great news! This season I've noticed some very subtle Broadway references sneaking into the dialogue. Hunter's character for example, mentions 'Sun Records', a reference to his Broadway show, 'Million Dollar Quartet'. Are those intentional little nods to Broadway fans?

Well the best part about the show is that our creator, Amy Sherman Palladino is a huge Broadway fan, a Broadway lover. A lot of the references are all nods to all fans of Broadway and theater. I think there was some obscure ones in this last episode, something about Julie Taymor and like some random ones that only the diehard Broadway fans would ever get. So yeah, there's a lot of Broadway love going on in the writer's room.

And speaking of Broadway, this week's episode involved an audition for 'Bells Are Ringing,' and it was so great to see you briefly singing and dancing. Can we hope to see more of that?

Well in the finale we'll see Michelle actually Go On a cattle call, open call audition for a
Broadway musical. And so you'll see me do a full on dance call and get to sing like a 16-bar audition. They do it top to finish about what a cattle call would be really like.

Any other teasers you can give us about upcoming episodes?

Just that this audition sequence is pretty cool. The thing I'm most proud of is that it is pretty authentic to what a real audition would be. The other thing I'm really proud of is that all the singing, even the ukulele playing and the stuff in the audition, we do everything live. Nothing is studio recorded. So it's really cool. There's just a cool live quality to it. All the 'Bells Are Ringing' was done live as we were taping it. Nothing was pre-recorded or auto-dubbed in. I'm very, very proud of that with our show.

Sort of the Tom Hooper approach to 'Bunheads'.

Yeah totally, totally!

Speaking of the ukulele, did you know how to play that instrument prior to the show?

I had gotten it as a gift for my birthday last year. I had always wanted to learn how to play it and a friend of mine was helping me learn. And then Amy said she wanted Hunter and I to sing this song, and so I learned how to play that song on the ukulele. So now I'm continuing to learn songs just for the show which has been a lot of fun!

Bunheads airs Mondays at 9:00 pm/ET on ABC Family.

Photo credit: Rick Rowell/Carin Baer/Eric McCandless/Adam Taylor/ABC Family

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