Ring Them Bells
Winter Park Playhouse
by Carl F. Gauze
Featuring Tay Anderson
Musical direction by Chris Leavy
Winter Park, FL
It’s not a Christmas show exactly, but it’s close enough for government work. Tay Anderson hangs around the Winter Park Playhouse to the point I suspect she has a front door key and a cot in the back. She’s very close to top of the list for WPPH leads, and I’ve always been impressed by her voice. Tonight, that’s what we get – Tay the songster, dabbling ins old standards and a few holiday pops tunes. She grew up on TV specials with the Fred Astaire her major, and her story is so familiar: In love with the stage before she could spell “Supercalaflagilelistic…” or whatever that ridiculous Mary Poppins lyric is. Ms. Anderson appears on stage in an amazing asymmetric dress; it looks particularly stunning when she’s back lit. We hear stories of her introduction to the stage, bedroom productions she did for the folks, and here infatuation with Tippy Hendren. Plus, she offers up a drinking woman’s advice: you’re not really drunk if you can hang onto the floor. While this isn’t the official Holiday cabaret (that’s next week) we do get some solid standards including “The Man that Got Away. The space slowly returns to normalcy, this show was mask free, and the seating was nearly full. This joint is where the beer is cold and the piano hot, try and drop in one night.
