Expressions: A Celebration of Voices in African-American Music
Winter Park Playhouse
Starring Maria Olivia Bryant
Featuring Bryant Pratt and Dave Stuart
Winter Park, FL
9-27-2018
The Winter Park Playhouse folks continue to expand the cabaret options in Orlando, and that’s good for everyone involved. Their new quarterly cabaret series focuses on African- American performers, and we open tonight with jazz soon-to-be-great Olivia Bryant and her superb backing band. The Playhouse’s goal here is to give African American talent a bigger stage in this town, and they are off to a flying start. They stick with the one hour, no intermission format, and they pack a lot of entertainment into that window. Spoken word artist Bryan Pratt starts us off with a pair of showy raps about love and life. Then saxophonist Dave Stuart takes the stage in his rhinestone encrusted jacket and does a 20-minute session of amazing jazz acrobatics. Behind him we hear a piano, drums and bass; this is one of the most involved musical productions The Playhouse has ever put up, and it’s just the lobby act. Half way through our star Ms. Bryant appears in a striking black and white dress. She gets right down to business with “Chain of Fools.” “Never Loved a Man Like You,” and “Respect.” All the pieces were made famous by Whitney Houston or Aretha Franklin, and by 8:30 the show wraps up on time, and hits the most important show biz criteria of all: Leave the crowd begging for more. There’s a full ninety-minute show in here, just bursting to get out.
