Spot Light Cabaret with Laura Hodos
Spot Light Cabaret with Laura Hodos
Musical Direction by Chris Leavy
Winter Park Playhouse, Winter Park FL</strong>
If Ms. Hodos hadn’t confessed to shopping at Ross, I’d have thought we’d stepped into a high class joint with a fancy piano player and professional chanteuse…oh,wait, we DID. I’ve seen several of Ms. Hodos’ solo shows, and each feels classier than that last. Tonight’s selections were loosely themed around songs from classic Paramount musicals and semi-obscure Broadway shows like “Roar of the Greasepaint” (Too many Rings around Rosie). Both Betty Hutton and Jeanette MacDonald made the selection list, and there was even a bit of a singer cat fight when WPPH regular Natalie Cordone appeared; rumor has it there might be a cabaret cage matching the near future complete with ring announcer and card boy.
After the mandatory booze refueling intermission, local piano prodigy Alexander Oyen snuck onto Mr. Leavy’s piano bench; he’s still young but boasts and impressive trunk full of new songs including the moving “Break Free.” He’s a local artist to watch, and one other local group snuck a song in the wrap-up mega mix – “Cinderella’s Song” from The Oops Guys “Bitches of the Kingdom” filled in between a Miss Saigon number and the only song Richard Rogers wrote without that other guy. Now that the Spotlight series is in its second year, it’s beginning to take on a creative life of its own and tying together other seemingly unrelated events. Mein Gott, there’ve created a rhinestone studded monster!
For more information on Winter Park Playhouse, please visit http://www.winterparkplayhouse.org
