Alan Cumming to Sing 'SAPPY SONGS' with Darren Criss & Ricki Lake at Carnegie Hall

Producer Daniel Nardicio will present the eclectic and electric Tony Award-winning performer ALAN CUMMINNG in his headlining debut at Carnegie Hall on Monday, February 8 at 8:00 PM, BroadwayWorld has confirmed. The show Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs with Friends features guest stars Darren Criss and Ricki Lake, in addition to a special performance by the New York City Gay Men's Chorus.

Backed by Cumming's longtime musical director Lance Horne on piano, Eleanor Norton on cello, Chris Jago on drums and Michael Croiter on guitar and percussion, Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs premiered in Spring 2015 for a limited run at the iconic supper club Café Carlyle, garnering such critical praise that Nardicio approached Cumming about bringing the show to Carnegie for a one-night-only performance.

This evening also marks the release of Cumming's newest CD Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs, from Yellow Sound Label, recorded live at the Café Carlyle. It includes his singular interpretations of pop hits (Billy Joel's "Goodnight Saigon," Miley Cyrus's "The Climb," Rufus Wainwright's "Dinner at Eight"), musical theater songs ("The Ladies Who Lunch" from Company, "You, You, You" from Kander & Ebb's The Visit, "If Love Were All" by Noël Coward) and numbers that Cumming has collected from around the world ("Mother Glasgow" from Scotland, "La Complainte de la Butte" from France, "How Do Humans Live" from Germany).

When this program was introduced last year, Sappy Songs was hailed as "an emotional firestorm, delivered passionately with tremendous theatrical authority" by The New York Times. Alan was lauded for his "wit, whimsy and powerful voice" by People.com, called "wonderfully dreamy" by the New York Post with songs that "ripple with emotion," according to the New York Daily News. Time Out New York praised Cumming for "putting a completely fresh interpretive spin on familiar songs."

The new album - produced by Michael Croiter, with Daniel Nardicio serving as associate producer - is currently available for pre-order at www.AlanCummingSingsSappySongs.com.

In addition to the New York album launch at Carnegie Hall, Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs will also be performed in Tampa, FL (January 24), Toronto, CA (February 6), Bethesda, MD (February 14), Napes, FL (February 28), Detroit, MI (March 19), Minneapolis, MN (March 26) and Port Washington, NY (May 14). Details are at AlanCumming.com.

Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs with Friends will take place at Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage) on Monday, February 8 at 8:00 PM. The venue is located at 881 Seventh Avenue at 57th Street in New York, NY. Tickets range from $45 to $135. VIP seats are available which include attendance to Alan's personal after-party "Club Cumming," modeled after his nightly post-show performance dressing room celebration during the recent Broadway production of Cabaret.

ALAN CUMMING is an actor and activist beyond eclectic and according to The New York Times "a bawdy countercultural sprite"; Time Magazine named him one of the most fun people in show business; He plays political maverick Eli Gold on CBS's "The Good Wife," for which he received Golden Globe, Emmy, SAG and Satellite Award nominations and earlier this year finished his Tony Award-winning role of the Emcee in the Broadway musical Cabaret. Alan's diverse career has found him performing at venues around the globe including the Sydney Opera House; making back to back films with Stanley Kubrick and The Spice Girls; directing and starring in a musical condom commercial; creating voices of a Smurf, a goat and Hitler; entering upside down and suspended by his ankles in a Greek tragedy (in the National Theatre of Scotland's The Bacchae); and recording an award-winning album of songs (plus a dance remix). Alan is also Host of PBS's "Masterpiece Mystery" and appears opposite Lisa Kudrow in Showtime's "Web Therapy." Alan has written for The New York Times, Newsweek, Harper's Bazaar, Out, has a bi-monthly column for Globe and Mail, and two books; Tommy's Tale and his New York Times bestselling memoir, Not My Father's Son. A tireless champion for LGBT civil rights and HIV/AIDS, Alan serves on the Board of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and works closely with amfAR, The Trevor Project and the Ali Forney Center to name but a few. In 2009, Alan was made an OBE in the Queen's Honors List and by his homeland, Scotland, for which he was a vocal supporter of the YES for independence campaign, he has been awarded the Great Scot and Icon of Scotland awards, as well as recently having his portrait unveiled at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery as seen on the finale of Portrait Artist of the Year.

DARREN CRISS recently starred in the title role of the Broadway revival of Hedwig and the Angry Inch and is also noted for his acclaimed run in the most recent Broadway production of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. Mr. Criss is likely best known for his portrayal of Blaine Anderson on the hit Fox series "Glee," for which he won SAG, People's Choice and Teen Choice Awards, and nominated for an Emmy for writing the series' finale song "This Time."

RICKI LAKE is the host of the long-running, Emmy Award-winning daytime talk show "The Ricki Lake Show" and is equally revered for playing Tracy Turnblad in the John Waters film Hairspray as well as Pepper in Cry-Baby. After several appearances on TV shows such as "King of Queens," "King of the Hill" and "Drop Dead Diva," as well as competing in season 13 of "Dancing With the Stars," Ricki Lake will be seen soon in a collaborative documentary film titled Sweetening the Pill, based on the best-selling book of the same title.