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A sublime song requires a sublime voice, and we’re in good hands here with star of the show Sylvia Cornes delivering Leonard Cohen’s gorgeous Suzanne with fragile beauty atop perfectly minimalist backing from Kirsty Hulka’s piano and Jamie Hall’s acoustic guitar.
Who By Fire and Sisters Of Mercy are similarly wonderful, the candlelit stage of the intimate Jonesway Theatre only enhancing the emotional warmth of Cornes’ vocals.
She peppers these much-adored songs with snippets of Cohen’s poetry and personal letters, which again, adds to the atmosphere, helping the show seem more personal, more private, more special.
Everybody Knows and Chelsea Hotel highlight the interesting, lush arrangements Cornes has given these classic songs: lush but roomy, Cohen’s wordplay centre stage always – none more so than on the moodier You Want It Darker and If It Be Your Will.
A false start to Bird On A Wire is the only indication that this is the first time this trio have performed the show together, but if anything it made proceedings more endearing: Cohen’s human frailty and artistic genius mirrored in these three obviously extremely talented individuals who – like us all – can forgive themselves for a misstep here and there.
So Long Marianne and Hallelujah close out the show, the trio of voices on the closing song so much greater than the sum of their parts when in unison, bringing us something closer, dare I say it, to the divine.
