Hannah Fontes

I Am Playing Me

La Posada Hotel, Winslow, AZ, March 11, 2023

Reviewed by Lynn Timmons Edwards

Winslow, Arizona is a town along old Route 66, more recently made famous by the Eagles’ “Take it Easy.” La Posada is an historic hotel designed by Mary Elizabeth Colter (of Grand Canyon fame). The story of Fred Harvey’s vision for the hotel, which opened in 1930 and its refurbishing in the mid-1990s, can be found at www.laposada.org. It was a perfect venue for the birth of a new cabaret star. The sell-out 60-plus crowd included patrons who drove an hour from Flagstaff and tourists lucky enough to snag a reservation for the weekend.

Hannah Fontes is a 26-year-old actress most known in Arizona for her work with the Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival (Flag Shakes) and the Southwest Shakespeare Company based in Mesa, Arizona. She made her cabaret debut with a piece she has been writing since college, which opened with the title song “I Am Playing Me” from [title of show] written by Jeff Bowen. Fontes exuded charm and positive energy. She described herself as an ENFJ (Meyers-Briggs Personality Test), a Hufflepuff (Harry Potter reference), and a person of faith. She summed it up with the song “A Cockeyed Optimist” (Rodgers & Hammerstein).

She created and produces a podcast for the Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival, Untamed Shrews: Women Talk Theatre!, with her best friends Becky Zaritsky (who introduced her this evening) and Dawn Tucker, who is the executive director of Flag Shakes (the recipient of the proceeds from this show). Fontes, a passionate thrifter, was dressed in a mini red-velvet dress that proclaimed “Shakespeare does cabaret.” She was accompanied by the very talented Bailey Cunningham on a grand piano. The stage was set with a stool, a mic, and a music stand under simple stars suspended from the ceiling.

We learned that Fontes was plus-sized until she was 19 years old and was shut out of many roles until she lost too much weight in college. While her weight loss opened casting and romantic doors for her, she realized she was not on a healthy trajectory. She discovered aerial movement and a focus on strength and endurance. While she still struggles with food, she now appears as a beautiful, blond ingénue who struck me as an old soul; perhaps she’s the reincarnation of a Harvey Girl who’s finding her way in the 21st century. She engaged with her audience as she tried to encourage us to be better, healthier, and more confident and to join her in the world of cockeyed optimism.

After her musical introduction, she got right down to her love life and two recent heartbreaks. She did not disclose the names of the men but shared her emotions through four songs: “Now” by Scott Alan, a dramatic break-up song; “Pretty Funny” by Lindsay Mendez, which represented the depressed phase of a break-up; the country song “Burning House” by Cam; and “Spring Cleaning” (Chris Miller/Nathan Tysen/Alysha Umphress) in which she was able to angrily channelled, in her words, “my inner bad bitch.”

This was the first time I heard Fontes sing. Having majored in musical theater in college, she negotiates songs as an actress, using a clear, focused chest voice. I was surprised by her ability to bring her emotions into each song and her never losing her breath control. Her voice is particularly well suited to the contemporary songs. I could see her in the lead role in The Last Five Years.

After closing the chapter on men, though she still thinks of them as boys, she talked about her mom, who was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago. That experience added even more perspective to her maturity. Before the show started, she asked audience members to write down what brings them joy. She drew the musings out of a jar, the first being the Arizona go-to, “grandchildren.” Her favorite was “the sound of my wife’s breathing when I wake up.” That’s the kind of partner she is searching for, so she tucked that note into her bosom, which brought forth another round of laughter. She challenged everyone to take out their phones and text someone “I love you.” I learned that by doing that out of context, you can freak out an adult son who thinks you might be the victim of some attack and that you are saying good-bye. Lesson learned. She dedicated Irving Berlin’s “Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep” to her mother, who is doing well, and to all loved ones, first performing it as the traditional ballad it is and then switching to a faster tempo. Pianist Cunningham drew no attention to himself while he provided solid support to Fontes on every song.

At 27, Fontes already thinks about how she wants to be remembered—for her humor, her heart, and her kindness. She closed with another Jeff Bowen song from [title of show], “Way Back to Then,” which brought her show full circle. Apparently, she doesn’t yet know that (to quote Nancy LaMott), “It’s cabaret, there is always an encore.”