A murder scene, a muse, a den of iniquity — the Chelsea Hotel was many things to all manner of musicians, writers and other creative types throughout the ’60s and ’70s.
For Leonard Cohen, the New York City landmark was a place to reconcile his voracious love life and his future career path.
How Cohen navigated the nuances of his life at the time gets the theatrical treatment starting Saturday, March 17, as the Firehall Arts Centre rolls out Chelsea Hotel: The Songs of Leonard Cohen to mark the venue’s 35th anniversary.
Having debuted in 2012, the show’s run has stretched over more than 230 performances and Vancouver’s Ben Elliott has been on stage for every one of them.
“Leonard Cohen is kind of like Shakespeare in a way, so there’s always new stuff to explore and discover with him,” Elliott said. “And people love him, so it never hurts to go back and do a show that you can tell is part of something really special.”
The show’s plotline follows a writer — not intended to be Cohen, but loosely based on him — who’s coming to grips with lost loves and lost inspiration. Elliott plays the role of a hotel bellhop and the writer’s inner mind, a place that’s inhabited by turmoil, regret and contradiction.
“He has to go through each [relationship] and discover what he loved about that person and why it ended until he can come terms to with what’s blocking him in the inside,” Elliott said. “I’m there to guide him, to cajole him and to punish and bully him into facing the things he doesn’t want to face.”
The setting itself is the stuff of legend. The bohemian, anything-goes-setting was once home to the likes of Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Mark Twain and Charles Bukowski. Nancy Spungen, girlfriend of Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols, was found stabbed to death in the hotel in October 1978.
Cohen’s tumultuous tenure at the hotel is conveyed in the show through a blend of music, dance, poetry and theatre spanning six artists playing 17 different instruments.
And despite the seemingly depressing tone of the plot, the show apparently gets the crowd all sorts of worked up. Patrons were none too shy about making out with each other outside the theatre when it debuted in 2012.
“We go to music or poetry as a sort of balm to our heart,” Elliott said. “When I listen to Cohen, I’m nodding my head constantly thinking to myself, ‘Yup, been there, done that.’ The man really understood love, both in the good and the bad.”
Chelsea Hotel: The Songs of Leonard Cohen runs March 17 to April 21. Tickets are $25 and available online at firehallartscentre.ca.
