THEATRE PREVIEW

FEBRUARY 2018 | Volume 164

 

The Firehall Arts Centre Celebrates its 35th Anniversary Season with a Tribute to the Late Leonard Cohen 

Award-Winning Production Chelsea Hotel: The Songs of Leonard Cohen Returns to the Heritage Building from March 17 to April 21

The Firehall Arts Centre brings its hit show, Chelsea Hotel: The Songs of Leonard Cohen, back to the stage from March 17 to April 21 in celebration of the venue's 35th anniversary season and to pay homage to the late Mr. Cohen. Featuring six artists playing seventeen different instruments, this award-winning production has toured across Canada to sold out audiences.

Haunted by memories of his tumultuous love life, a writer checks into New York's infamous Chelsea Hotel desperate to find the words and inspiration for his next song. Wading through past relationships, he reluctantly comes face to face with the love of the present, a love he wishes he could not only forget, but erase from memory.

Leonard Cohen's powerful and inspirational music is the heartbeat for Chelsea Hotel. Through Cohen's transcendent songs and the honesty of his lyrics, audiences will be transfixed by this eclectic cabaret of loves won and lost, and become witness in the search for the words to cure love's pain.

Conceived and directed by Tracey Power, with musical arrangements by Steve Charles, Chelsea Hotel: The Songs of Leonard Cohen is an inventive fusion of music, dance, and theatre that invites its audience into the hotel room of a creative mind and takes them on a poetic musical journey. The production premiered in February of 2012 and was nicknamed 'the make out show' as patrons were often caught kissing outside the theatre after the show. It was remounted by popular demand in the Fall of that same year and went on tour to Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Victoria, and Toronto.

With over 200 shows since its premiere, Chelsea Hotel: The Songs of Leonard Cohen has played to audiences of all ages and received praise across the country for its imagination and creativity. It received Ovation Awards for "Outstanding Ensemble Production" and "Outstanding Director", and received numerous nominations for awards including the Jessie Richardson Theatre Award, Calgary Theatre Critics' Award, and Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award. The production, a tribute to one of Canada's remarkable writers, has played to sold out houses across the country, with patrons returning again and again. 

"When Mr. Cohen passed in November 2016, our cast and company were deeply affected, as were his many fans," says the Firehall Arts Centre's Artistic Producer, Donna Spencer. "It was then that I decided the Firehall should celebrate his work once more through offering our last production of Chelsea Hotel as part of the Firehall's 35th anniversary season. The Firehall is deeply proud of developing and producing Chelsea Hotel, and we are looking forward to hearing Mr. Cohen's music ringing through the theatre once more before Closing Time."

Credits for Chelsea Hotel: The Songs of Leonard Cohen

Created and Directed by:  Tracey Power
Musical Direction & Arrangements by:  Steve Charles
Performers:  Benjamin Elliott, Marlene Ginader, Steve Charles, Adrian Glynn, Krystle Dos Santos, & Kayla Nickle
Set Designer:  Marshall McMahen
Costume Designer:  Barbara Clayden
Lighting Designer:  Ted Roberts
Sound Designer:  Xavier Berbudeau
Artistic Director & Producer:  Donna Spencer
Stage Manager:  Emma Hammond

Performance Times:  Tues, 7pm | Wed-Fri, 8pm | Sat, 3pm & 8pm | Sun, 3pm | Wed, 1pm PWYC (March 21 & 28; April 4, 11, 18) 
Media Opening: Mar. 21, 8 pm  
Post Show Talkbacks:  March 22 & 29; April 5, 12, & 19

For more information on the Firehall Arts Centre, please visit the following platforms:

Website: www.firehallartscentre.ca
Facebook: www.facebook.com/firehallartscentre
Twitter: www.twitter.com/FirehallArtsCte

About the Firehall Arts Centre:

Located in a heritage fire station built in 1906, the Firehall Arts Centre produces a season of eclectic theatre, dance and interdisciplinary performances, and acts as a host to visual arts exhibitions in its intimate gallery/lounge. Each year, FAC hosts over two hundred performances bringing audiences into the heart of the city to enjoy artistic works, view art works in the gallery, and sip a beverage in the enclosed courtyard. The building that is now home to the Firehall Arts Centre served as a fire hall – the first motorized fire hall in North America – until 1975. Minor renovations to turn the building into a theatre were undertaken at that time but it was not until February 25, 1982, that the building opened as the Firehall Theatre. Later the decision was taken to change the name to the Firehall Arts Centre to better reflect all of the different arts activities that are housed in the bustling centre that we are today. www.firehallartscentre.ca    

 

 

 

 

 

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