Alan Cumming is heading to Perth to sing some sappy songs, and while he’s in town he’s got a mission to complete.
The label ‘multi-talented’ is one that fits Alan Cumming well. He’s an acclaimed actor, appearing in films and television shows, ranging from Bond films to TV’s The Good Wife.
He’s a musical theatre and stage star. He’s published several books including a memoir, a novel, and a nonfiction book about circumcision. He’s a political activist and he’s getting ready to open his own bar.
Next month Cumming will make his first trip to Perth, and it’s something he’s wanted to do for a long time.
“I was making a film in Sydney once and I really wanted to go to Perth and take that train trip across the country. I love a long train journey, and I love the fact that they say you’ll see desert for days and the suddenly the appearance of a tree will cause everyone to wake up, and even in their pyjamas they’ll want to see the tree. I think that’s hilarious.” Cumming said when he called OUTinPerth for a chat.
While his tight touring schedule won’t allow the luxury of a train journey journey, he will be flying into town to deliver his show Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs.
We suggest that sappy is a word that doesn’t off get used, and Cumming leaps to defend the choice. “I like it, I think it’s a great word.”
“The reason that I called the show that is because I wanted to signal both that it’s going to be emotional, and personal, and intimate.
“It’s pretty intense, but also there’s humour in it. I didn’t say ‘sad songs’ because I think people recognise that there’s a little bit of fun attached to it as well. I really like the word sappy.”
Cumming says since he first started taking the show around the world it has evolved a little bit.
“It has a structure, but there’s bit’s where I chat about what I’ve been doing that day or anything that needs to be addressed. It’s not just me singing a bunch of songs.”
One of the other projects Cumming is currently working on is the opening of Club Cumming in New York later this year. A few years ago he began doing impromptu shows in his dressing room called Club Cumming, now the concept is about to get a permanent home.
“It’s happening in the middle of September, it’s going to be fun. It’s a bar called Eastern Bloc, it’s more a bar than a club. It’s called Club Cumming because the parties that I do are called Club Cumming.”
“So we’re taking the spirit of those parties and putting them into a bar. It’s a bar in the East Village, that I really love and we’re buying into it and giving it a bit of a make-over, it’s going to be fun.”
Cumming said that there will be times patrons might find him sitting at the end of the bar, but he’s also planning to do occasional shows and DJ sets at the venue.
“I’ll be in the bar, I’ll be DJing sometimes. I’m obviously not going to be there every night but my spirit is definitely going to be infusing, if not my presence.”
While Cumming is now at home in New York where he’s a regular fixture on Broadway and in the cities many underground performance venues. He didn’t imagine living in The Big Apple is where he’s end up.
“Not at all. I didn’t even come to America until I was thirty. I had no aspirations about coming here and working here. I didn’t even come here for a vacation. I first came when I was thirty, and it was for work.”
“Its funny how my life has turned out, when I left drama school I thought maybe one day I might move to London. Stuff just sort of happens and you find yourself here.”
“I love New York, it’s great. America is kind of an insane place right now. New York always feels like a little island of liberalism just off the coast of America, which it is.”
Being an international star of screen and stage is a long way from where Cumming’s life began in Aberfeldy in the Scottish Highlands. He shared what his difficult upbringing was like in his memoir Not My Father’s Son.
The book recounts Cumming meeting his father after a decades of estrangement, just as he’s about to film an episode of the TV show Who Do You Think You Are? While the subject matter of the book is quite dark, he said it was a cathartic experience to share it with the world.
“It was very much dictated by the events of doing Who Do You Think You Are? And my Dad coming out of the woodwork, that’s what spurred me to write that book.” Cumming said.
“It was something I had to write to expunge that whole experience.
“I actually really like writing about my life. Not My Father’s Son was intense because it was about my childhood, it was full of violence and intense things, but actually it’s a really great way to stand back from your life, and share it with other people, but also remember how nuts it is, in both good ways and bad ways.”
Since then Cumming has authored a second book of stories and photographs called You’ve Gotta Get Bigger Dreams, and he’s currently working on another book which chronicles his early days as an actor and his move to America.
“I think I’ve had an incredible life.” he said, describing his journey to where he is now in life as a wild adventure, but he’s very happy with where he now is in his personal and professional life.
“There’s been lots of relationships, and a lot of crazy things, and I’ve managed to overcome things and survive and be happy. The older I get the more I realise that that’s actually very rare and people need to hear that story sometimes.”
Cumming reveals that when he gets to Perth the one mission on his itinerary is heading to Rottnest Island to see the quokas.
“My band are quite obsessed with quokkas, my chellist has a picture of one as the screensaver on her phone.”
We assure him that it’s quite easy to see a quoka on a trip to Rottnest, in fact recently there’s been a population explosion on the island and a fence has had to be erected to stop quokkas getting onto the island’s golf course.
“It’s going to be like Trump’s America, where people turn against the quokkas!” Cumming laughs at the suggestion of a giant fence to keep the marsupials out.
Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs is at The Astor Theatre on Tuesday 13 June.
Graeme Watson
