In
'Chocolate' the singing is
delicious, the comedy sweet
By
HOLLY JOHNSON
THE OREGONIAN
In Joan
Freed’s delightful one-woman show,
“Chocolate Confessions,” some of the most
interesting, seldom-heard songs from the
pantheon of musical comedy fill the stage
when you least expect them.
Freed is
a fine comedian and a wonderful chanteuse,
and she’s come up with an endearing,
too-familiar frame to hang the tunes on –
the loosely wrought story of a woman, Coco
Bliss, who runs a chocolate shop and meets
all sorts of female characters (all played
by Freed, of course) who can’t get enough of
the sweet stuff.
There’s
the chocolate junkie in leather and a pink
wig (“Put the chocolate in the bag, and no
one’ll get hurt”), the sultry chocoholic in
an evening gown who hangs out in piano bars
spooning pot de crème, the romance-novel
junkie who likes her men just like her
chocolate, dark, full-bodied and rich.
There’s even a hilarious rap song by Freed
whose lyrics go by too quickly.
Like
chocolate, we get a little, but we want
more. There’s a short history lesson on
chocolate, with its Maya/Aztec roots and its
aphrodisiac attributes.
But what
Freed really brings to the evening, despite
her wonderful skill with quick character
change (from squeaky utterance to Texas
drawl) is her wonderful singing voice. With
musical arrangements and keyboard
accompaniment by Craig Jones, she offers an
assortment of obscure songs that I wish she
had credited in the program, selections by
Kurt Weill, Jule Styne and others.
Some of
the lyrics have been altered to suit the
chocolate-craving theme. But most were sung
with original lyrics, including a fabulous,
wistful torch song, “It’s Hot in Here” by
Amanda McBroom, and “Life Story” from
“Closer Than Ever” by Richard Maltby Jr. and
David Shire.
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