If Only You Knew – A Friendship Cabaret
Breakthrough Theater of Winter Park
With Milly Hickes and Sara Barone
Musical Direction by Warren Gordon
Winter Park, FL
So many of the Breakthrough Cabaret shows are internally generated, but this two woman event is an external show, and it sure sounds different. We’re encouraged to sing along (not many did) and feed the tip jar (which did pretty good) as these two besties alternate duets and solo numbers. Theirs a few classic show tunes from older productions including “Chicago” and “Annie Get Your Gun,” but most of this material comes from the recent crop of female divas: Celine Dion, Bette Middler, Cher, and all those other one name female stadium fillers. There’s a live person play on stage (Mr. Gordon) but he’s on and off stage almost every other song, with recorded tracks filling in for him when the song needs a more elaborate backing track. The on stage banter was a lively and informative, and I now know where Millie and Sara stand in the intercine pizza wars between Chicago and New York style pies. Naturally, one troublemaker shouted but something about Detroit, but I’m not sure that should even count.
The set list leans toward modern divas and some of the songs leaded toward the modern auto tune arrangements. Notable tunes include “All That Jazz”, “New York State of Mind” and “‘Anything You can Do” from “Annie Get Your Gun” made a great duet. Celine Dion took a few numbers, although I’m not terrible familiar with her oeuvres, and we enjoyed the Lady Gaga Mini-set. I didn’t really sense a showstopper song, and the best material was in the middle of the sets. Occasionally the delivery missed an opening beat. What really struck me is how hard it is to pull off many of the modern hits without the electronic tricks that imbue modern music, Still, the show rocked, and the audience gave an ovation. I hope to see this duo again soon somewhere.
