Cohen, Bernstein, Joni & Me continues at Upstairs at the Gatehouse, London until 1 February 2026.

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

This warmly engaging, autobiographical, one-woman story presents Deb Filler’s adventures as a wannabe singer. A complete stranger in the bar beforehand somehow clocked that I was reviewing and asked me incredulously whether she, Filler, really had met all those people in the title. I had to tell him that, at that stage, I didn’t know. The answer is that yes, she did – sort of. And those three unlikely encounters provide the piece with its structure.

She met Cohen, for example, when …