Alan Cumming is Not Acting His Age (Life is a Middle-Aged Cabaret), is a performance by the 2021 Festival Director, and brings this year's Festival to a close. The demand for tickets was so great that a second performance had to be added. From Scotland, via America, his list of credentials and awards would fill a book and now he can add a successful Adelaide Cabaret Festival to that list. The achievement is all the greater because of the constraints of COVID-19, and the constantly changing situation.
While most cabaret performances link together a lot of songs with a degree of dialogue, this performance reversed that, with a great many fascinating, and often hilarious, insights, anecdotes, and philosophical discussions on what it means to age, whether it be gracefully, or disgracefully, the latter being my personal preference and, of course, his.
The opening number, But Alive, written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green for Lauren Bacall in the musical Applause, set the scene for the rest of the performance, and also brought forth massive applause from the full house of Cumming fans. He had them right where he wanted them. The laughs began immediately with his exposition on the joys of long-haul flights, the convenience of living only three blocks from his Club Cumming, and the famous people who drop in for a nightcap and an impromptu performance.
In the background began Franz Schubert's famous and beautiful, Schwanengesang (Swan Song), D 957, Book 1, No. 4, Standchen (serenade), for piano and 'cello, juxtaposed, shortly after, against Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller's Is That All There Is?, recorded by Peggy Lee in 1969. Cumming's musical director, Henry Koperski, was joined by three fine Adelaide musicians on 'cello, trumpet, and drums, the four managing to sound like a full orchestra.
He, humorously, lamented his realisation that he has reached the age of 56 (I should be so lucky as to be that young again, I'm 72), and questioned what is 'age appropriate', and who decides that, and why our society doesn't value its elders as other societies do?
The evening progressed along that path, relevant songs, and a wide range of topics, from facelifts, to sex, to death, and the quality of life. There were moments of great hilarity, and a few poignant moments, too, particularly when he spoke of the death of a much-loved dog. Partying hard, with famous stars of stage and screen, and the antics that they got up to together, certainly interested the audience. His anecdote about his image as the MC in Cabaret almost, but not quite, being a Christmas tree decoration for charity, gave a string of laughs.
John Kander and Fred Ebb's musical, Cabaret, had to get a further mention, and Maybe This Time, written originally for the stage production with Kaye Ballard, and sung in the film by Liza Minnelli, as Sally Bowles, was a big hit with the audience. He stayed with Liza for It Was a Good Time, written by Mack David, Maurice Jarre, and Mike Curb, segueing into Friedrich Hollaender's Falling in Love Again (Can't Help It). Billy Joel's Where's the Orchestra?, one final encore, and then a standing ovation closed the performance.
There was so much more in this sensational performance, an ideal final event for me at this year's Cabaret Festival. Cumming squeezed an enormous amount into his show, and nobody minded a bit that it ran overtime by quite a while. Haste ye back.
Here is a snippet from his earlier show, Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs, presented at the Cabaret Festival in Adelaide, back in 2017.
Photography: Christopher Boudewyns.
Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Saturday 26th June 2021.