Nuts &
Chews
Chocolate shop patrons
share secrets in musical comedy
By
STEPHEN BLAIR
PORTLAND TRIBUNE
Joan Freed’s
one-woman musical comedy, “Chocolate
Confessions,” played to sold-out audiences
at Lake Owego’s Lakewood Center last month.
Freed portrays Coco Bliss, owner of a
chocolate shop, as well as the other 11
women who drop by the shop to satisfy their
longing for truffles and nonpareils. Each
has a song to sing and a secret to spill.
Freed,
who developed the show and now brings it to
The Old Church, sees Bliss as the ringleader
of this confectionery circus.
“At the
beginning of the show Coco greets the
audience and talks about her life in the
chocolate business,” she says. “She’s like
the local bartender. People like to talk to
her.”
Hence
the stream of customers that flows through
the door to confide in Bliss, as well as
sample her goods. When a doorbell rings to
signal the arrival of each customer, Freed
scurries offstage, throws on a new costume
and reemerges as a different character.
The
characters, too, are like a box of
chocolates. That is, you never know what
you’re going to get next. In the tradition
of Marilyn Monroe, there’s Lynn Tizzie, a
blond sexpot addicted to romance novels.
Always on the lookout for a man, she sings,
“Mr. Right” by Kurt Weill.
Then
comes Ms. Pythagorus, a geometry wiz who
sings a tune dear to her heart, “The Shape
of Things.” Contessa Natasha Kinki, a
glamorous Russian opera star, is another
memorable visitor.
“Chocolate Confessions” begs comparison
with the film “Chocolat,” which also is
about a chocolate shop owner and her quirky
customers.
“The
movie came out after I’d written most of the
show,” Freed says. “The film is more of a
fairy tale, while my show is a musical
comedy. The setting is all they have in
common.”
Freed, a
former mathematician, got her start in
musical theater in 1993. Inspired by her
children’s progress in their acting classes,
she began taking acting classes and voice
lessons herself. She selected the songs for
“Chocolate Confessions” from lesser-known
stage musicals such as “She Loves Me” by
Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock.
“Music
gets me excited,” she says. “My characters
come out of the songs I choose.”
For its
run at The Old Church, “Chocolate
Confession” will be accompanied by an edible
sideshow called “A Springtime Chocolate
Celebration.” Papa Haydn, Moonstruck
Chocolatiers, La Provence Bakery and other
vendors of the decadent and divine will be
on hand.
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