I Am a Hotel is a rather odd (occasionally kitsch) musical written by Leonard Cohen which was broadcast on Canadian TV in 1983. The plot is composed of a series of five vignettes dealing with love, sex and longing. Each story is based on a Cohen song.
The action takes place in the King Edward Hotel in Toronto. Cohen portrays a character known simply as The Resident, a Greek chorus of one.
Co-written by Mark Shekter and directed by Allan F. Nicholls.
Scenes:
1. The Guests - the characters enter via the lobby and are taken to their rooms; the bellboy and chambermaid meet in the corridor; and the manager and his wife apparently have angry words in the lobby after which she strides off.
2. Memories - the bellboy pursues the chambermaid around the laundry and ballroom.
3. The Gypsy Wife - the manager’s wife, in fetching attire, dances on the boardroom table.
4. Chelsea Hotel # 2 - two lovers try, and fail, to make love, and the admiral and diva at last face each other across the hallway.
5. Suzanne - scenes of “Suzanne” with Cohen are interspersed with shots of the two couples reunited and dancing together, and the hotel manager distraught and then drinking at the bar.A short epilogue repeats the opening material from ‘The Guests’.