Poster featuring Alan Cumming in a provocative pose.What a treat! Alan Cumming has the amazing gift of making a 2,000 seat venue feel like an intimate little club. The Crown-Prince of Scotland spent two hours regaling us with tales from Hollywood and singing his heart out.
The name-dropping is outrageous! The stories scandalous! The singing fabulous! It feels like the whole performance is in italics with extra exclamation marks.
It feels slightly odd to say this, but it was delightful to hear him sing in his natural accent. If you've seen Schmigadoon or Cabaret or literally anything else he's been in, you'll know what a gift he has for accents. But hearing classic show-tunes done in a rolling burr was magnificent.
The song choice is, I think it is fair to say, eclectic. I've seen a lot of musicals but even I struggled to place them all. Yes, he does some from Cabaret (although probably not the ones you'd expect) and a delicious Disney medley, but the real joy is in the deep cuts and the self-composed number.
His backing band is modest - piano, drums, trumpet, and cello - but it is more than enough to fill the space without being overpowering.
It is a sweet, joyous, flirtatious, and wickedly funny show. Perhaps the only disappointment was that we didn't get to hear a rendition of the theme from "High Life" 😉
Tickets are available for tonight in London, Thursday in Manchester, and Saturday in Glasgow.
