Baubles, Bangles and Beads
Spotlight Caberet at Winter Park Playhouse
With Natalie Cordone
Musical Direction by Chris Leavy
Winter Park, FL
Breaking news! Natalie Cordone pulls ahead of crowd favorite Kevin Kelly in the race to see who can do the most WPPH cabarets performances, and she does it in style wearing a flash gold sequined gown that just scream “Musical Theater Geek.” Tales of making it big on that long lonely highway we call Orange Avenue filled the hour; Cordone has one of those charmed careers filled with chance auditions, lucky breaks, and people who saw what she had even if she didn’t at that particular moment. Backed by the perennial pianist Chris Leavy, she takes us down a primrose path of B’way standards. The headline number “Baubles, Bangles and Beads” comes from the rarely produced “Kismet” captured the crowd, and we then careened through “Shall We Dance?” to “Think of Me” from Phantom” to a delicate “Ave Maria”. Mr. Leavy even wrote her a mash up of “Diamonds are Forever” and “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.” Cordone relates challenges she overcame, and when her sweet NYC apartment deal fell apart, she decided it was easier to make rent in Orlando and let us enjoy her vocal skills. Nobody’s gonna rain on HER parade; she’s just a girl who can’t say no when we ask her to sing.
