by Mark G. Auerbach
Alan Cumming
For over forty years, the UMass Fine ArtsCenter has been the area’s year-round go-to venue for international music, dance, jazz, and theatre. They’ve opened their new season with the internationally-acclaimed stage, screen and TV actor; author and activist Alan Cumming, with his new one-man show Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs.
Alan Cumming is as versatile as the Fine Arts Center’s programming. He picked up a Tony Award for his performance in Broadway’s Cabaret; and he co-starred opposite Cyndi Lauper in The Threepenny Opera. He’s performed his own one-man version of Macbeth, starred in the London production of Bent, and was featured as Eli Gold in the long-running TV series The Good Wife. He’s co-hosted the Tony Awards as well as SNL.
Last year, he had a solo gig at New York’s fabled Cafe Carlyle, home to an eclectic mix of entertainers from Woody Allen and The Eddy Davis New Orleans Jazz Band to Tommy Tune, Chita Rivera, Shirley Jones, Judy Collins and the late great
Alan Cumming
Elaine Stritch. Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs was recorded there, before Cumming hit the road on this current tour.
Backed up by composer Lance Horne on piano and Pelham, MA native Eleanor Norton on cello, Cumming offered a fast-paced two hour show of interesting music pieces, running the gamut from Adele and Miley Cyrus to Weill, Kander and Ebb, and Sondheim. In between his music, he wove tales about his life and the people in it, from poignant revelations about his relationships with his grandfather and father to hilarious backstage antics with Liza Minnelli.
Cumming, a self-described actor who sings, found the theatre and drama in each song presented, yet his voice is pleasant, and nuanced, and quite adept at handling his repertoire. He got a well-deserved standing ovation before and after his encore, a brilliant version of Sondheim’s “The Ladies Who Lunch” from Company.
The Fine Arts Center season is a mix of classical and contemporary performing arts from around the globe. Consider some of the following for your upcoming entertainment menu: The Warsaw Philharmonic; the Broadway musical Once; Jelly & George: a concert showcasing Jelly Roll Morton and George Gershwin; The Sydney Dance Company; Les 7 Doigts de la Main’s Cuisine and Confessions; and The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. For a feast like this, you’d otherwise have to travel to Boston or New York.
Alan Cumming
For Alan Cumming’s Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs Live At The Cafe Carlyle CD: https://www.amazon.com/Sings-Sappy-Songs-Live-Carlyle/dp/B017YBJQIY
For details on the UMass Fine Arts Center Season: 413-545-2511, 800-999-UMAS or http://www.fineartscenter.com/
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Mark G. Auerbach studied theatre at American University and the Yale School of Drama. He’s worked for arts organizations and reported on theatre for newspapers and radio.
