New Zealander Deb Filler is a force of nature and so much more! A superb musician a performer who not ‘only connects’ but brings alive her stories - whether amusing or filled with pathos - or both.

Deb instantly flags up where she and her comedy are coming from in its title - the three much-loved luminaries with whom she modestly shares her billing are of course Leonards Cohen and Bernstein and Joni Mitchell, with all of whom she has history - fascinating and often funny too.

Upstairs at The Gatehouse, the intimate theatre space above the Highgate Pub, worked wonderfully well, especially with the addition of chairs round tables in a semicircle around the thrust stage.

From the moment Deb takes the stage you feel her energy and warmth and marvel at her talent for storytelling, as well assigning and playing guitar - and getting us the audience to sing along as appropriate. I for one felt that she melded us into a gathering of friends, all focused on her and all she was sharing.

She first played that guitar aged nine, and folk music soon became her passion. When Peter, Paul and Mary came to her hometown of Auckland, she showed her determination to be in the right place at the right time, with a ‘Pavlova’ anecdote. No, not ballerina Anna Pavlova, but her mother’s rich fruit-and-cream filled home-made meringue cake that she took to the stage door of the theatre where her adored trio were playing, to present to them - literally as a sweetener!

This ‘sweetener’ worked so well that Peter had her sing backstage! Although this backfired at first, as he didn’t want to hear anything they’d performed, with her parents’ encouragement she sang both Judy Garland (her wonderfully supportive ‘Jewish mother’s’ suggestion) and something in Yiddish (her equally supportive Dad’s choice)!

While we are in the Auckland suburb where Deb grew up, I will share that the family ran a bakery, where her father spent hours making and baking Challah bread for the Jewish Sabbath each week. He was a survivor of Auschwitz, where she went with him to fulfil his need to return to say Kaddish (the mourners’ prayer) for all who perished there.

When she met Leonard Bernstein in 1974, and shared with him that her father had been in the audience at a concert he played for Holocaust survivors in Munich in 1948, he closed Auckland Town Hall to play a piano concerto just for her, that she got to watch from a seat in the dress circle designated by Bernstein, who played for her eyes (and ears) only.

As for Leonard Cohen, she was working part-time as a cab driver when she picked him up as a fare. Impressed by his driver, Cohen produced a cassette from his pocket to hear on the cab’s player, warning the this was the only audio copy of his latest song ‘Hallelujah’ That Deb manages to create real tension as she shares how it unspooled from the slot, tells you what a captivating storyteller she is - we the audience were tense too, and delighted to relieve the tension by singing Hallelujah in Yiddish with her - and to learn that Cohen and Deb remained firm friends.

But don’t just take my word for it. You too can thrill, laugh and even wipe a tear from your eye at Deb’s unmissable show until 1 February!

By Judi Herman

Cohen, Bernstein, Joni and Me runs from Tuesday 20 January until Sunday 1 February 7.30pm, 4pm (Sundays only). £25 (concs £23). Upstairs At The Gatehouse, London, N6 4BD. 020 8340 3488. upstairsatthegatehouse.com