Alan Cumming Comes To Geffen Playhouse 9/29-10/6 With His One Man Cabaret Show
By: Gabrielle Sierra Sep. 14, 2009
Tony Award winner Alan Cumming brings his one-man cabaret show to the Geffen Playhouse for eight shows only from September 29 to October 6. Directly following critically acclaimed runs at the Sydney Opera House, Lincoln Center and the Vaudeville Theater on London's West End, Alan Cumming: I Bought a Blue Car Today is a fast-paced jaunt that intersperses witty banter, cheeky stories and show-stopping songs.
Joined on stage by live musicians and helmed by musical director Lance Horne, Cumming belts material from Frank Sinatra to Kander & Ebb with his signature charm. In I Bought a Blue Car Today, Alan Cumming shows that life is indeed a cabaret. The Geffen Playhouse performances mark Cumming's most intimate setting yet. Played in the 135-seat Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater, Cumming's personal stories take on the tone of a delicious secret told at a private dinner party - assuming your dinner guests happen to be Tony Award winning performers backed up by a five piece band.
The title, I Bought a Blue Car Today, comes from the sentence that Cumming needed to write on his naturalization test to become a US citizen, which becomes the launch pad for many of the Scotsman's hilarious stories about his time in the US. The Geffen Playhouse run comes on the heels of the Sept 22 national release of Cumming's eponymous solo debut album which features select songs from the show including material from Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Chess and Falsettos as well as original material written by Cumming and Horne. Tickets, which range from $55 - $75, are on sell to the public now through the Geffen box office. Selects seats will be held for Geffen Playhouse subscribers. Alan Cumming: I BOUGHT A BLUE CAR TODAYPerformed by Alan Cumming Musical Direction by Lance Horne Runs: September 29 - October 4 Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater at the Geffen Playhouse Performance Schedule Monday No performance Tuesday - Friday 8:00pm Saturday7:30pm; 9:30pm Sunday2:00pm; 7:00pm
Tickets are on sale now at the Geffen Playhouse box office, online at GeffenPlayhouse.com, via credit card phone order at (310) 208-5454, at all Ticketmaster outlets, or by calling Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000.
MORE ABOUT Alan Cumming
Alan Cumming trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and quickly found fame in his homeland for both his television work and stand-up comedy. The theater gave him his biggest break when he appeared in Manfred Karge's Conquest of the South Pole in Edinburgh. The play transferred to the Royal Court in London's West End and Cumming was nominated for the Most Promising Newcomer Olivier Award. A star of stage and screen, U.S. film audiences were first introduced to Cumming in Circle of Friends, and he went on to appear in many varied films including Bryan Singer's X2:X Men United, Robert Rodriguez's Spy Kids trilogy, Romyand Michele's High School Reunion, Goldeneye, Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, Titus, Emma and Sweet Land(for which he received an Independent Spirit Award for producing). With Jennifer Jason Leigh he wrote, produced, directed and starred in the acclaimed The Anniversary Party, which won a National Board of Review award and two Independent Spirit nominations. In 1998, Cabaret opened on Broadway and Cumming was heralded for his stunning performance as the Emcee.
He won the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, FANY, Theatre World and New York Public Advocate's awards for his work. He has continued to earn accolades on Broadway in The Threepenny Opera, Design for Living, and Off-Broadway in Elle (which he also adapted) and The Classic Stage Company's The Seagull opposite Dianne Wiest. He returned to the British stage in 2006 in Martin Sherman's Bent, and most recently appeared in the National Theatre of Scotland's production of Euripides' The Bacchae, which opened the Edinburgh International Festival and toured Scotland, transferred to London and then to the Lincoln Center Festival. Cumming won the Herald Archangel award for his work as Dionysus. On television he has appeared in Sex and the City, Frasier, Third Rock From the Sun, The L Word, Reefer Madness and most recently in Sci-Fi Channel's record-breaking Tin Man. He is also the host of PBS' Masterpiece Mystery. His second feature film as actor/director, Ghost Writer, was released in 2008. He has been selected to star as The Green Goblin in Julie Taymor's Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark on Broadway in Spring of 2010, and will also be seen in the upcoming films, Dare, Boogie Woogie, Riverworld and The Tempest opposite Helen Mirren. Cumming's activism and charity work for civil rights and sex education causes have earned him several humanitarian awards including two Human Rights Campaigns awards, GLAAD's (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) prestigious Vito Russo Media award and The Trevor Project Hero Award. In 2005, he was awarded an Icon of Scotland and in 2006, received an honorary Doctorate of Arts from the University of Abertay, Dundee. Most recently, he was appointed an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) in the Queen's Birthday Honours listhonored for services to film, theater and the arts and to activism for equal rights for the gay and lesbian community. He is also the author of the book Tommy's Tale and has launched a successful fragrance and body line. For more information, please visit alancumming.com
Photo credit Linda Lenzi
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