STAGE PRESENCE

Alan Cumming Drops Into—And Drops Name At—NYC’s XL Cabaret

We luurve Alan Cumming. He’s had one of those crazy, unplanned careers that’s included everything from low-budget indie gay flicks to mega-blockbuster franchise movies.

Currently co-starring on CBS’ The Good Wife—against type as an tightly wound straight campaign manager—Cumming made a one-night-only appearance at New York‘s XL on St. Patrick’s Day to help raise awareness for the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC, or IGGEL-Herk, as Cumming charmingly calls it).

With the dance floor converted into a more intimate cabaret room, Cumming dazzled the crowd with a mix of musical-theater standards (“Mein Herr,” “Wig in a Box”), mashups (Adele’s “Someone Like You” with Lady Gaga‘s “Edge of Glory” and Katy Perry’s “Firework”) and his own compositions (“Next to Me”), with longtime collaborator Lance Horne at the keyboard.

Though he complained of the marriage-equality struggle in his adopted homeland and spoke eloquently about IGLHRC (which raises awareness of the plight of gays in far corners of the world), Cumming kept things fairly light.

The namedropping, though, was heavier than Cumming’s Scottish brogue—and leaned hilariously toward geriatric celebritydom: He reminisced about spotting Liza Minnelli in the audience the first time he sang “Mein Herr” (boasting he had “balls of steel” to pull that off), summering at Jerry Herman’s old Fire Island getaway (which led into a rendition of Herman’s “I Won’t Send Roses”) and talking pussy with showbiz legend Ann Miller at the Hollywood Bowl. (She just luurved him in Eyes Wide Shut!)

That’s our Alan: One moment, he’s sharing the stage with the queen of the MGM musicals and the next he’s getting plowed by a strap-on on The L Word. Somebody get this man a reality show!

Photo: aphrodite-in-nyc

 

 

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