One more time for ‘Feast of Cohen’
After this weekend, the long-running show will take a break, then return to its roots
Vicky Hynes is preparing to put the little sprig of holly back onto her “Feast of Cohen” posters.
The little yuletide decoration was removed from the advertising last year, when, for the first time in its history, the annual homage to Leonard Cohen had to be moved from Christmas Week to September.
The 2015 “Feast of Cohen” will happen at the St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre this Saturday night, but for the very last time.
The next time, it’ll be back around the holidays, and back at the LSPU Hall, to boot.
Hynes established “Feast of Cohen” at the LSPU Hall in 2001, as a way to stave off the after-Christmas blues. The event eventually outgrew the hall, and Hynes moved it to the Arts and Culture Centre.
Last year, Hynes was told the centre would be closing for Christmas holidays from now on, so she chose to move the show to the middle of September, around Cohen’s birthday, instead.
It was a gamble, and it was one that didn’t pay off the way Hynes had hoped, and ticket sales have dropped — so it’s back to the Hall for next time.
“It takes the whole spirit out of it,” Hynes says of rescheduling from December to September. “People associate it now with Christmas. The whole spirit of the evening changes. Removing that element makes it a different thing altogether, like a regular tribute show.
“When we went there first, it was the right place to go. Who would have guessed they were going to close for the holidays? It really slays me how a theatre
can make a decision to close at the most lucrative and busy time of year for artists.
“It’s been very frustrating. I’m not willing to let it die or break up there.”
It’s too late to book the Hall for 2016, so the show will go on hiatus after this weekend until Jan. 4, 2017, the first of three nights she already has reserved.
In the meantime, Hynes has put together a lineup with some buzz for Saturday’s show: performing Cohen’s songs will be Ilia Nicoll, Victor Lewis, Emma Peckfod, Gavin Simms, Ken Tizzard, Jenny Gear, Sean Panting, Lori Cooper, Bryan Hennessey, Jill Porter and Jenina MacGillivray.
MacGillivray is an established local filmmaker, but new to the musical stage, Hynes said.
“I remember her at the show back in 2001, lying on the floor,” Hynes said, laughing. “Tickets were sold out, but they let some extra people in for $15 if they sat on the floor.”
Hynes will also perform at the show, as well as her house band, the Beautiful Losers (Boomer Stamp, Kelly Russell, Derek Pelley, Dave Panting and Geoff Panting), under the direction of Sandy Morris.
Hynes has always had a mandate to feature talented up-andcomers with the more established musicians on her stage, and she reckons about 50 of them have performed in the show over the years, marking one of the first times they ever played to an audience of that size.
“The Once, Fortunate Ones when they were Andrew James O’Brien with Catherine Allan, Matthew Hornell, Tim Baker,” Hynes named some of the list. “Sure, Joel Hynes had never sung a note before he went onstage at the ‘Feast of Cohen.’”
Tickets for “Feast of Cohen” are $50 and are available at the Arts and Culture Centre box office and online at www.artsandculturecentre.com.