by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS
Singer and actress Lauren Fox, who’ll sing the songs of Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen on Friday, is 39. But musically, at least, she’s an old soul — obsessed, she says, with music made in the decades before she was born. “That’s the era I’m stuck with,” Fox said in a phone interview last week. “I feel like that’s when I should have been born. I should have been 18 or 19 at Woodstock. I’ve always felt that way.”
Her show is most often classed as cabaret, whose heyday dates back even further, though it’s undergone something of a renaissance in recent years. Influenced by her godmother, the legendary cabaret singer Andrea Marcovicci, Fox knew she wanted to make an intimate connection with audiences while updating the form with the music she loves. She uses her acting skills, too, embodying the singer-songwriters as she performs such songs as “Both Sides Now” and “Hallelujah.” Between songs, she tells stories about the pair, who had a brief romance early in their careers.
Fox’s take on the magic of Cohen and Mitchell, a show that debuted in New York City, has received much critical acclaim, and she’s received several awards for her cabaret performances. Besides her other cabaret shows (also focused on the time of free love and flower children), she has a long list of acting credits and is at work on Atlas of the Soul, set to begin filming later this year. By popular demand, though, she keeps coming back to her favorite couple. “There are so many Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen fans,” she said. “Everybody loves them — one or both.”
What: The Songs of Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen
Where: The Washington Center for the Performing Arts,
512 Washington St. SE, Olympia
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 5
How much: $26-$37
Get tickets: 360-753-8586 | The Washington Center