David Foster Is Heading to Broadway With the Musical-Comedy Adaptation of the 1930s Cartoon Character Betty Boop
David Foster, composer-producer-songwriter extraordinaire, never stops. “I am a workaholic,” he confesses, “and I move around a lot.”
Foster and his wife, singer-actress Katharine McPhee, will tour during December and January, with multiple dates scheduled for California, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts. “Kat and I started touring together four or five years ago,” he says. “It’s a nice little show and we talk about our lives and how we got together.
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“For the longest time, I was in the studio just pounding out music,” he adds. “The artists got to go and enjoy our work and get feedback from a live audience, while I just kept staying in the studio and doing more records. So it was great to finally get out there and perform these songs with Kat.”
They play and sing many of the hits that Foster wrote or produced for such superstars as Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Chicago and Michael Bublé. Audiences, he says, “are happy to hear the songs and see the connection.”
Foster also produced two of the songs on Jennifer Hudson’s new Christmas album: a big-band-infused “Winter Wonderland” and a lush strings-and-piano version of “The Christmas Song.”
“That was a lot of fun,” he says. “I really haven’t made a record in 10 years, and it took a lot for somebody to talk me out of retirement. It’s a great record.”
His highest profile project for 2025 is “Boop! The Musical,” slated to open April 5 at New York’s Broadhurst Theatre. Ten years in the making, it’s a musical-comedy adaptation of Dave Fleischer’s 1930s cartoon character Betty Boop that earned unanimous rave reviews for its Chicago tryout a year ago.
Foster wrote the music, Susan Birkenhead (“Jelly’s Last Jam”) the lyrics, Bob Martin (“The Drowsy Chaperone”) the book. Newcomer Jasmine Amy Rogers plays Betty Boop in what several noted was a star-making turn.
The critics outdid themselves with superlatives. “Spectacular songs and a winning star in Jasmine Amy Rogers,” “highly polished musical … lush score by David Foster,” “visually stunning and aurally pleasing,” “a fun and whimsical production … universal appeal, heartwarming characters,” “starry performance by Rogers with an exuberant score by David Foster” were just some of the plaudits the show received last December.
In those vintage black-and-white cartoons, Betty was famously voiced by Mae Questel (“boop-oop-a-doop!”). The musical opens in that grayscale Jazz Age world but through her grandfather’s time-traveling invention she finds herself in colorful, contemporary New York (illustrated by the show-stopping “Where I Wanna Be” number at the end of Act I).
Foster says the offer for “Boop” came along when he decided to stop producing records. “But I didn’t want to stop working. [Producer] Bill Haber asked me, and of course I said yes. It sounded like a good challenge because, for Broadway, you don’t have to write a hit song; you just have to write a good song. And I still felt capable of writing a good song. In fact, we just had a Zoom yesterday, and I have to write a new song. It’s a moving target, as you probably know.”
Tony winner Jerry Mitchell (“Kinky Boots”) is both director and choreographer. Foster says, “He’s all about dance, all about theater. He’s about big, bright and bold. He’s really brought Betty to life.
“It’s a really fun ride,” he adds. “There’s so much stuff going on in the world, and a lot of what’s on Broadway is kind of heavy and message-driven. So I think we’ll find a good place for this. The audience is ready, and I think people are really going to enjoy it.”
Foster expects to be back in New York for rehearsals by February, as previews begin March 11. The New York Times reported that the show is being capitalized for $26 million.
But the ever-busy Foster isn’t stopping there. In addition to “Boop!,” there is an additional stage show in development. “I’m working on another musical with a wonderful songwriter named AnnMarie Milazzo,” he reports. It’s called “Lucky Us,” based on the bestselling 2014 novel by Amy Bloom.
“It’s a period piece, set in the 1930s and ’40s,” explains Foster, “quite different for me.” Milazzo was Tony-nominated for her orchestrations on “Once on This Island”; she was also credited with vocal design for “A Beautiful Noise,” “Almost Famous” and “Finding Neverland,” among others. Book writer James Magruder is another Broadway veteran (“Triumph of Love,” the revival of “Guys and Dolls,” the Go-Go’s musical “Head Over Heels”).
Bloom’s book is ripe for dramatization. It’s the story of teenage half-sisters Eva and Iris, who crisscross America in search of fame and fortune, from dull Ohio to decadent Hollywood and back to New York, where jazz clubs beckon. Bloom even borrows classic jazz tunes for her chapter titles, a hint as to where Foster’s song score may go stylistically.
Five-time Tony-nominated Michael Greif (“Rent,” “Grey Gardens,” “Dear Evan Hansen” and others) is set to direct. Foster says they’ve already done a lengthy developmental reading; there is no word on casting yet.
“We’re doing another reading in March, so it’s rolling along and shows promise of going a lot faster than ‘Boop.’ Maybe because I know what I’m doing,” he quips.
Foster already has 16 Grammys, three Oscar nominations and an Emmy on his mantel … and given these promising shows, could there be a Tony in his future as well?
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