Sutton Foster will star in Amy Sherman-Palladino’s ABC Family pilot Bunheads, about a former showgirl who finds herself running a small-town dance studio. After watching Laura Benanti have to slum it on Playboy Club, it’s nice to think about a Broadway star having a promising TV role! Foster could pass as the missing Gilmore girl on bright-eyed brunette-ness alone, but her Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes proved she could also lend a surprising sweetness to a character that’s sort of a brassy broad — that she could find a genuine vulnerability that didn’t diminish the character’s toughness. That was Sherman-Palladino’s calling card on Gilmore Girls: Strong but sensitive weirdos (Lorelai, Lane, Paris) who are independent but not strictly icy (Rory, Luke), and who see their talents and charms as completely valid excuses for occasional bad behavior (pretty much everyone). Please don’t suck, Bunheads. [THR]
