Leonard Cohen’s rarely seen musical ‘I Am A Hotel’

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’.