CHELSEA HOTEL: THE SONGS OF LEONARD COHEN by Tracey Power and Steven Charles (Theatre 20/Firehall Arts Centre) at Theatre Passe Muraille (16 Ryerson). Runs to February 21. $25-$55. 416-504-7529. See listings. Rating: NNN
Few artists have a catalogue that can support an entire show without a contrived plot or dialogue. Legendary poet/singer/songwriter Leonard Cohens writing, his fans may feel, needs no embellishment. But while that may be the case in a concert, Chelsea Hotels premise as a stage musical is as paper-thin as the storied residences walls.
The show opens on a still callow Cohen (Jonathan Gould) sequestered in his shabby room, surrounded by mounds of crumpled and discarded writing paper. He lapses into fantasy at his desk as maids, a bellman and a concierge appear, singing and playing his in-progress songs. (The sorry state of the room makes it clear these people are imaginary.)
Set designer Marshall McMahen makes fine use of a paper motif. Notes and characters from Cohens songs are pulled from the piles, as are instruments (the six-person ensemble play everything onstage). The maids prop brooms have paper bristles, and the ensembles makeup suggests paper dolls. As the most sombre of Cohens many female muses, Christina Cuglietta sports tresses adorned with twists of paper.
The show works its way through the songbook, with several of Cohens greatest hits, like Lover Lover Lover and Take This Waltz, reprised in the second act. Every word sung or spoken onstage is by Cohen there are less than a dozen spoken interstitial quotes, some of them repeated.
Where the songs evoke them, there are hints of story. Suzanne is portrayed by show co-creator and director Tracey Power as a white-gowned goddess with a Free them protest sign, while a rock starlet jilts Cohen by the end of their rise to fame in First We Take Manhattan.
But the rudimentary staging of other numbers, especially those involving Ben Elliotts charismatic and lascivious concierge, is often trite, as when he and Cohen eavesdrop on the next room in Paper Thin Hotel.
Other songs, such as Chelsea Hotel #2 and Devastation Hill, are delivered by Gould as straightforward rock numbers from a centre-stage spotlight. His voice is strong and melodious, but no one in the cast gives a standout performance or attempts to emulate Cohens distinctive timbre, which is probably for the best.
Vancouver-based Firehall Arts Centre has been touring Chelsea Hotel across Canada since 2012, and its presented in Toronto with the support of Theatre 20 and Theatre Passe Muraille. Its popularity is likely due to Cohen fans getting what they want: all the hits, with no distracting plot twists.
Midway through, when Cohens muses sing Im Your Man in harmony, its already clear that he and his lyrics are the be-all and end-all of Chelsea Hotel. Hes their man, and theyre sticking with him.
