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She may not be an altogether familiar name in Chicago, but for anyone who follows the Broadway scene, Sutton Foster is clearly the go-to gal.

The terrific dancer-singer-actress can even lay claim to a classic "42nd Street"-like rise to fame. At 25, tapped to replace the out-of-town lead in the original Broadway edition of "Thoroughly Modern Millie," she went on to win the 2002 Tony Award for best actress in a musical. And that was just the start.

She then created leading roles in four new Broadway musicals in a row: the 2005 "Little Women" (in which she starred as Jo March), the 2006 "The Drowsy Chaperone" (as the flamboyant showgirl Janet van de Graaff), Mel Brooks' 2007 "Young Frankenstein" (as Inga, the earthy blond who yodels up a storm) and the 2008 "Shrek, the Musical" (as the wonderfully neurotic Princess Fiona).

It's a record-breaking resume for any Broadway actress. And you can add to the roster of Sutton's generally wholesome characters a more recent credit -- her role as Miss Carol, the leather- and whip-clad dominatrix in Paul Weitz's Off-Broadway comedy "Trust." Even more reason, perhaps, to catch her tonight through Sunday at the newly named and remodeled Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place.

In "An Evening With Sutton Foster," the actress will perform numbers from her Broadway hits, as well as from her eclectic 2009 CD "Wish" (Ghostlight Records).

"I actually stopped in Chicago for the first time while touring with 'The Will Rogers Follies' in 1993," Foster said. "I was 17 then, and out on my first national tour before even finishing high school in Michigan. It was pretty intense, traveling across the country by myself on my first time away from home and making the leap from local to professional theater. But it prepared me for the rest of my career."

After that tour, Sutton, who wanted to be "a normal teen," attended Carnegie Mellon University, but she lasted only a year.

"I was confused and lost, and I visited my brother [actor-writer Hunter Foster] in New York and started to go on open auditions," Foster recalled. "By 19, I was back on the road in 'Grease.' "

For her Playhouse show, similar to one she performed at New York's Cafe Carlyle, Foster will sing a mix of jazz, pop, cabaret and Broadway.

"I'm very drawn to the earthy folk and country vibe that reflects my mom's taste -- the songs of John Denver, James Taylor, Dan Fogelberg and The Eagles," she said. "And I love Joni Mitchell and Patty Griffin. And with my music director, Michael Rafter, I've selected some jazz standards and even a few obscure songs."

Foster, who clearly is never unemployed, is teaching an undergrad course at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts this fall. And in the winter of 2011 she'll be back on Broadway, playing Reno Sweeny in a revival of Cole Porter's "Anything Goes."