Get ready for a thoroughly Downton Christmas.
Sutton Foster, who won Tony Awards for her performances in “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and “Anything Goes,” will headline the Mormon Tabernacle Choir‘s Christmas concerts. The narrator will be Hugh Bonneville, best-known for playing the patriarch on the long-running British drama “Downton Abbey.”
Hugh Bonneville, a cast member in the PBS television series "Downton Abbey," poses for a portrait during the 2015 Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour at the Beverly Hilton on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2015, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
Free tickets for the concerts, scheduled Dec. 14-16 in the 21,000-seat LDS Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City, will become available Saturday, Oct. 21, at 10 a.m. MDT.
This year’s tickets are available online only, first-come first-served, at lds.org/events. Patrons can request a maximum of four tickets.
Foster has starred in 11 Broadway shows, including “Little Women,” “The Drowsy Chaperone,” “Young Frankenstein” and “Shrek the Musical.” She currently stars in the TV Land comedy-drama “Younger.”
“I feel like, in some ways, I‘m coming home,” Foster said during the concert announcement, noting that she has performed in Utah several times and has friends here.
Bonneville starred as Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, for all six seasons of “Downton Abbey.” His films include “Notting Hill,” “The Monuments Men” and the two “Paddington” movies.
Repertoire for the Christmas concerts always is a closely guarded secret, but Tabernacle Choir music director Mack Wilberg said in a news release that Bonneville will tell “a story specially tailored to him about joy and peace at Christmas.”
“It‘s an epic production that’s being planned, and I’m very excited to be a part of it,” the actor said.
Wilberg and Ryan Murphy will conduct the December concerts, which also feature the Orchestra at Temple Square, Bells on Temple Square and a small army of dancers.
Visit the choir’s website for more information.
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