Alan Cumming Tackles an Age-Old Question

“Who decides?” asks Alan Cumming. “Who decides what is age appropriate?”

It’s a fascinating question from a chameleonic artist, someone who has spent decades slipping in and out of different roles and creative pursuits. Cumming is just as comfortable acting on-screen as he is onstage; he is just as convincing playing a teleporting blue mutant in X-Men as he is a flashy political consultant in The Good Wife , or the enigmatic “Emcee” in the live production of Cabaret.

When he speaks to Broadsheet , the Scottish-born, New York-based actor, author and singer is at the tail-end of quarantine as he prepares to oversee Adelaide Cabaret Festival as artistic director – and is putting the finishing touches on his new show, Alan Cumming Is Not Acting His Age.

The show, which is coming to Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne in June and July, centres around getting older – and specifically why it is viewed as such a terrible thing in our society.

“The thing I really want people to take away is that, you know, why do we make [aging] the worst thing in the world to happen to you?” he says. With age comes experience, Cumming points out. Now in his fifties, he says he’s really enjoying his wisdom. “Wisdom’s just seeing patterns, and then deciding to behave differently in a situation that went badly the last time,” he says.

He describes Not Acting His Age as an old-fashioned cabaret show – there’s a band, audience interaction, and there’ll be songs. “They’re much more peppy songs this time,” he says “I do talk about the negative things – there’s a whole section on gravity, your body sagging in unfortunate ways.” There will also be talk of death. “The thing about getting older is more people die around you.”

The show will have its world premiere on the last night of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival – the culmination of a 12-day program Cumming is calling his “love letter to Australia” – before touring the country. Though Cumming says he might test out a few of the songs in the days leading up to the show at the festival’s Club Cumming – his famous New York cabaret bar, transplanted to Adelaide – which will host a series of events that are part live performance, part party and all hedonism.

Despite being such a seasoned artist, Cumming says performing cabaret is one of the things that scares him most. Though the actor has been on stage in cabaret shows since the ’80s, he first stepped onto the stage as himself, rather than a character, in 2009.

“Not having the veil of a character between you and the audience is a completely different kettle of fish. You’re much more vulnerable, and it’s much more terrifying. It took me years. Years and years and years to pluck up the courage to do it.

“I think as an actor I’m very fearless and prepared to be vulnerable. And I find I have great access to darkness in my work,” he adds. But bringing down the barrier between character and real life, as required for his cabaret shows, is difficult.

“I get really angry with myself when I’m about to open a play or show. Because I think, ‘Why are you doing this to yourself? You could be on some set somewhere having a nice time, going to dinner now,’” he says. But allowing himself to be vulnerable – both on stage and in his writing – has been really positive. “I think it’s helped me in my life, actually, the idea that I go on stage and I might cry about something as myself not as a character – I think, ‘That’s allowed, I can do that.’”

So what next, after bringing his years of experience to programming a festival and putting on an entirely new show? It’s a mixed bag, and Cumming wouldn’t have it any other way. He’s releasing episodes of a new podcast, mentions an upcoming show with Miriam Margolyes, and has handed in the manuscript for his latest book, which comes out in October. “I like having no plan,” he says. “Other than to be happy.”

Adelaide
Sat June 26 – Festival Theatre

Brisbane
Wed June 30 – Lyric Theatre, QPAC

Sydney
Thu July 1 & Mon July 5 – Enmore Theatre

Melbourne
Fri July 2 – Plenary, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre

Perth
Fri July 9 – PCEC, Riverside Theatre