A Very Charmed Kind Of Life
text YU SHING TING
photos by MARK SHAW markshawstudio.com // IG @mark_shaw
stylist CYNTHIA ALTORISO altoriso.com // IG @altorisony
hair and makeup DAMIAN MONZILLO damianmonzillo.com // IG @damianmonzillo
Alan Cumming wears many hats. Over the past four decades, he’s become an entertainment polymath whose talent stretches across multiple screens and stages. He’s an actor, dancer, singer, writer, narrator, producer, director and comedian. He owns a cabaret bar in New York City’s East Village and is a podcaster and author of two children’s books and the No. 1 New York Times bestselling memoir Not My Father’s Son, among others.
“If I had to choose a word to describe what I do, I would say I’m a storyteller,” explains Cumming. “So, whatever form that takes — talking to people about their homes or interpreting Shakespeare or doing a movie — it’s all about telling stories and listening to people.”
This fall, he brings his new cabaret show, ”Alan Cumming is Not Acting His Age,” to Hawaii Theatre Oct. 21, celebrating and exploring his “puckish, eclectic spirit and joie de vivre.”
“These shows I do ... it’s what I think (of) as an old-fashioned cabaret — I have a band, I sing songs, I tell stories,” says Cumming, adding there’s also a theme with this one being about aging and living life to the fullest. ”The great thing about cabaret as a form is that it means you can be very eclectic. You can be telling a funny story at one moment and the next telling something very serious, and so the whole place should be like that — you have this whole sort of smorgasbord of emotions and genres.
”Ultimately, people will have a really good time and have a laugh, and cry maybe, and definitely have a think, so that’s why I like doing it. It’s nice to be entertaining people but also to be provocative.”
While he’s worked on a film (The Tempest with Helen Mirren) and vacationed in Hawai‘i before, this will be his first live show in the Aloha State, and it’ll take place during the Honolulu Pride Parade & Festival. An outspoken advocate for equal rights for the gay and lesbian community, Cumming notes his excitement for the event (he’ll be marching in the parade), especially at a time of strife from recent anti-transgender legislation and anti-LGBTQIA+ events throughout the country.
“I think Pride has taken on a renewed sort of vigor and urgency and has become much more of a protest again as well as a celebration,” he says. “And I think that’s a really good thing because it’s a time for everyone to remember to be vigilant and to be sure to support our fellow members of the acronym who are having a bit of a tough time right now.”
Born in Scotland, Cumming started acting as a teenager, performing in school plays and with a local theater club and musical society. He went on to train at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, while also working in television, theater, film and as a stand-up comedian. From there, he continued to make a name for himself on stages throughout the U.K., joining the Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal National Theatre, and earning rave reviews early in his career, including winning an Olivier Award for his performance in Accidental Death of an Anarchist, and a TMA BEST Actor award and a Shakespeare’s Globe nomination for Hamlet.
Among his first feature films were Prague, GoldenEye and Emma. Then, he shot his first movie in the U.S., Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, which became a cult classic. In 1998, Cumming made his Broadway debut as master of ceremonies in Cabaret, earning a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical, and ultimately making the permanent move to the city that never sleeps. Now, a quarter-century later, he still finds joy in being a New Yorker (he also has a second home in Catskill upstate).
“Living in New York City, I’ve been in the country upstate (on holiday just prior to our interview),” shares Cumming, when asked about things that make him happy. “Up there, things make me smile like frogs ... my cherries are coming in, that made me smile. Just the fact that I can jump into the pool when it’s hot makes me smile. Just that I have freedom makes me smile — that’s very important and something I don’t take for granted.
“And in the city here, living in a sort of bubbly city where so many people have got opinions, New York makes me smile. I still love it. It’s sort of like an adventure every day you venture out. I think my life makes me smile. I also love when I go to Scotland and stay there. I think it’s very much about being in touch with yourself and what you love is what makes you happy.”
A colorful raconteur, Cumming also has a growing list of hosting credits for various television and film series, talk shows and award ceremonies.
A couple of years ago, he and actress Miriam Margolyes returned to their roots for the travel series Miriam & Alan: Lost in Scotland, sharing their beloved memories of their native land. The show won a British Academy of Film and Television Scotland Award for Features.
As an actor, Cumming recently worked on the musical comedy series Schmigadoon! on Apple TV+, and hosts the psychological thriller reality competition show The Traitors on Peacock. He also reprised his iconic role of Eli Gold in The Good Fight, a spinoff of the long-running, award-winning TV series The Good Wife.
“What I’m doing right now is Alan Cumming’s Paradise Homes, where I’ve gone around Europe, and I’m going to one in Northern America, and I meet these people who built their dream homes, and I just sort of talk to them and talk to the designers and it’s actually quite fun,” shares Cumming. “I got to go to all these great countries, and it’s so fascinating when you realize this sort of measure of a successful home is how happy the people who built it are in it, whether it’s to your taste or not. “I’m going to do another documentary series about a train trip in Scotland. It’s my favorite thing to do — the Royal Scotsman train. Then, I do more Paradise Homes and after that, I guess the next thing I do is The Traitors again. I’m working in Scotland a lot ... and because the strike just started (at press time), none of the things I have planned actingwise will be happening for a while.”
Cumming also recently directed and produced a podcast series for Audible called Hot White Heist that is scheduled for release shortly after his concert in Hawai‘i. Along with Cumming, the show stars Bowen Yang, Cynthia Nixon, Jane Lynch, Margaret Cho and more.
“It’s a bank heist show, but it’s about a sperm bank instead of a bank bank, and the second season of it comes out and it’s really good,” says Cumming.
When he’s not busy working, you’ll likely find Cumming pottering around or spending time with friends. “Yesterday, I chopped down some branches of a tree and made a fort in the woods,” he shares. “I’m just obsessed with a new pool vacuum cleaner I got. I cook and I read, but mostly my hobby would be, my thing that I like to do, is I like to have friends up to the house or friends here (in the city) and just sort of cook for them and chat and really connect with them because it’s so difficult to do that when you work so much and so far away. But also even going out in public it makes it a little harder. So, I just love having people to my home and they’re able to sort of stay over and spend constant time with them.”
And while he describes himself as a pretty happy person, there are things that will make him scowl. “When you say, ‘thank you’ and someone instead of saying ‘you’re welcome’ or nothing ... people just go ‘mm- hmm.’ I hate that. I hate it so much. It’s like you can’t even be bothered to form a word. I’ve said, ‘thank you’ because I’m grateful and now I feel pissed-off with you for being such a sort of ... slobby.”
As for the highlight of his extensive career so far, Cumming points to not one moment in particular, but rather how his job has given him a voice to make a positive difference in the world. Throughout the years, he’s been honored with more than 40 humanitarian awards, and is an active supporter of various causes, including Save the Chimps, and is an ambassador for the Paul Taylor Dance Company, Hetrick-Martin Institute, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, God’s Love We Deliver and more. He was even on PETA’s limited-edition postage stamps with other celebrated vegetarians.
“It’s not a thing or a job or a film or anything, it’s more just about that I realize that by being myself I’m saying what I think and living the life I want to live, I’ve inspired other people to feel better about their lives, and that’s a really incredible thing to realize,” he explains. “That, to me, is much more important than any awards or films or success in that way ... that, to me, is much more of a lasting legacy.”