National sold-out Chelsea Hotel: The Songs Of Leonard Cohen premières in Toronto

“It’s written on the walls of this hotel: you go to heaven once you’ve been to hell,” reads a lonely writer on a wall of his hotel room. That’s how it goes.

He is sitting at the desk in a paper-thin New York hotel room, desperately trying to write. Literally swamped with scraps of paper, “How can I begin anything new with all the yesterday in me?” he asks. And the memories burst in.

These memories have bodies and voices. Voices that sing the inspiring and passionate songs of Leonard Cohen. They sing about love. And the writer has only his alter ego to keep him sane.

Chelsea Hotel: The Songs Of Leonard Cohen is not a love story. Nor is it a story about love. Six performers playing 17 instruments in remarkable arrangements, tell a story of a person looking for himself. A man who is lost in past love stories. A man who tries to draw that line between memories and real life. A man in pain yet still in love.

Cohen’s lyrics in combination with ripping charisma of main character’s alter ego is spellbinding and crowned with the striking energy of the writer played by Jonathan Gould. Together they create a masterfully breathtaking story. A story intimate to anyone who has ever been in love.

A story brilliantly played by Gould, present in every moment smiling, suffering and crying, goes through ups and downs of love. Coping with love that is out of his control and pains of “living in a house haunted by the ghost of you and me,” he finally realizes: “The reason I write is to create something as beautiful as you are.”

You do go to heaven once you’ve been to hell. Hallelujah.

Chelsea Hotel: The Songs Of Leonard Cohen Show dates: Feb. 3 – 21, 2016

Tickets: regular – $35-$55; Artsworker with valid I.D. – $30; Under 30 with valid I.D. – $25 Tickets can be purchased by calling 416-504-7529 or by visiting http://www.theatre20.com