NEW YORK — Over his half-century career, David Foster has written and produced hits for every legend imaginable: Whitney Houston . Celine Dion . Chaka Khan .
Madonna . Now, the 16-time Grammy winner is adding a doe-eyed cartoon pinup to his inimitable list of divas. " Boop! The Musical " is a blissful, toe-tapping spectacle that imagines if Betty Boop (Jasmine Amy Rogers) left her black-and-white animated world for the colorful chaos of modern-day Manhattan.
The kid-friendly Broadway comedy opened at the Broadhurst Theatre (235 W. 44 th Street) earlier this month, earning rave reviews for Rogers’ star-making turn and Foster’s eminently hummable score. Composing “Boop!” was a “great new challenge,” says Foster, 75, who has scaled the Top 40 charts through his collaborations with Chicago , Kenny Loggins and Earth, Wind & Fire .
“I haven’t written hits in a couple decades now and I’m OK with that, because I’ve done other things,” Foster says. “With Broadway, it was so liberating not having that pressure of the radio, so you can literally write anything. You can start off slow, speed up in the middle, change keys, have a different character sing something – it’s really awesome.
” David Foster wrote to Stephen Sondheim about 'Boop! The Musical' Foster was first approached about “Boop!” 15 years ago by producer Bill Haber. The challenge was “to write music that you couldn’t put a time frame on,” he explains, with numbers that feel both conte.
