Today, the Arts Club Theatre's production, The Chelsea Hotel, opens at the Surrey Arts Centre. This show features the songs of Leonard Cohen.
Cohen has been part of the music scene for a long time. He also wrote an experimental novel, Beautiful Losers, and has published two other novels as well as books of poetry.
One folksinger friend back in the day used the epithet "Six-note Leonard" in an ironic reference to his unvarying melodies, but we sang his songs all the same.
And so did lots of famous people. Suzanne was one of Cohen's early hits, evoking a black and white photo of a run-down neighbourhood in his home town of Montreal. Judy Collins slso made this song a hit. Another early song was Famous Blue Raincoat, sung by Cohen himself and also by Jennifer Warnes. This was only the beginning of a long musical career.
Leonard Cohen is still writing and singing songs. In 2012 he toured North America and Europe, last summer he was back in Europe and in the fall he performed in Australia and New Zealand.
In 2013, he also won a Juno as Artist of the Year and another as Songwriter of the Year. His album Old Ideas was nominated for the Fonogram Hungarian Music Awards.
Post-show note: The group of six that performed Chelsea Hotel sang all the classics mentioned above and more, showcasing Leonard Cohen's versatility and moving the audience effortlessly from laughter to seriousness, for instance with these trenchant words of social criticism:
"I don't like your fashion business, Mister. I don't like those drugs that keep you thin.
I don't like what happened to my sister. First we take Manhattan -- then we take Berlin."
I waited for Bird on a Wire, and was rewarded. It was the fitting end of a lively evening of music, dance and various other antics.
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