Reviews

Holy s***! I’m someone who keeps reading celebrity memoirs only to be disappointed again and again. I knew I had to read Sutton’s because as someone who grew up doing musical theater and went to school for it in New York, she has been one of my idols for as long as I can remember. I sang Astonishing my senior year of high school and listened to Sutton do it over and over to try to get the placement of my mix right. She was Millie. She was this mythical figure of New York theatre. I remember being shocked along with my friends when her and Christian, musical theatre royalty, announced their divorce. She did a workshop at my school that everyone freaked out about but I could not get into! I was lucky enough to see her in Violet (this was the only thing I was able to see and am grateful but bummed- her performances are hard to get tickets to and rightly so!)
Basically she is a divine deity among us mere mortal theatricals and we are not worthy.
I did not also expect her to be an incredibly talented writer. Because this is very, very well-written. It is honest and funny and heart wrenching. She opens up in a way that makes us feel like she’s divulging her secrets to us, her very best friends.
I started this book and did not pay attention to the page count, the time or anything else until I suddenly snapped back to reality and realized it was an hour later and I was already halfway through. That NEVER happens to me.
As one of the most talented living musical theatre artists, it feels strange to hear such honest and human thoughts, feelings and complicated emotions spilling out on the page. She’s a legend but she’s humble. Whaaaaaat? I’ve met a lot of actors in my life and usually they’re trying to sell you themselves. She doesn’t do that. If anything it’s kind of like, c’mon Sutton you know you didn’t win your Tony’s on accident, take at least a few victory laps for goodness sakes.
She frames all of this, all of her struggles and heartbreak and accomplishments within her chosen hobbies but mostly one: crochet. Over my life I have found so many creative hobbies to pour myself into, and in this last year it has especially been knitting and crochet. It has been incredibly therapeutic for me in what has been one of the most challenging years of my life and to see her parallels of how she channeled her emotions into this art, I get that, really deep down I understand. Making these projects was a way for her subconscious to process her emotions, and a way to channel the anxiety and grief she was working through into a physical object, a container of that emotion. It’s what I’ve been doing everyday lately, and to create something beautiful and joyful out of pain seems pretty special.
The way she writes is exactly how I imagine her in person: earnest, heartfelt, wry, a little sassy, observant, loyal, forgiving, kind, and filled to the brim with big emotions.
Also she does an interview with Patti Lupone which like, c’mon Patti Lupone!!! Who is also so kind and wonderful and opens up about her struggles coming up in musical theatre. What a flipping delightful surprise that was. The story of how they became friends is so sweet and lovely. Sometimes it’s just nice to know that your legends also still admire the legends that came before them.

I’m not sure someone who doesn’t have the same emotional connection to her career will be as enthralled as I was. It’s possible! But I can’t untangle that from my perspective here.
Regardless it’s a really beautiful story of a woman coming to terms with her inherited scars, forging her own path and crocheting a lot of blankets along the way.

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