Early on in the show Cumming invites us to ‘open your heart and take off your judgey hat’ – complete anathema to a critic – yet by the close my heart was indeed filled with no small measure of love for my fellow man, and my ‘judgey hat’ (a fur-lined fedora if you must know) had been tossed recklessly to the floor. This is a spectacularly entertaining evening of cabaret and confessional sprinkled liberally with some showbiz anecdotes.
Cumming himself is a very engaging performer, he not only has he the voice but, perhaps just as importantly for this kind of show, he’s so obviously a good guy – there’s nothing precious or diva-ish about him – that the audience warms to him from practically his first word. I’m still not sure what was going on with his costume – a vest with a collar (not sure if there’s a name for such a garment), a tie and a really horrible pair of elasticated leatherette pantaloons. A dare? A provocation? A cry for help? Sadly there was no Q and A for anyone to find out.
The songs cover quite a range, from Miley Cyrus to Stephen Sondheim to Rufus Wainwright. One of the highlights is Last Day on Earth written by his relatively less-famous musical director and pianist Lance Horne. Cumming has the gift of making each song totally his own, so much so that quite often it’s hard to place the song so completely does he reinvent it. The opening song – Annie Lennox‘s Why – ends with Cumming delivering the lyrics almost as a kind of sermon delivered by a fire and brimstone preacher. He stretches the definition of ‘sappy‘ with a powerful take on the Weill-Brecht song What Keeps Mankind Alive – a searing indictment of greed, hypocrisy and metaphorical cannibalism – which has to be the least sappy song ever written.
Cumming talks movingly about his relationship with his abusive father, and how when making an episode of Who Do You Think You Are for the BBC he discovered some disturbing truths about his grandfather. He gets right the balance between the heart-on-sleeve emotionalism with adventures in Hollywood such as writing and starring in a condom commercial with Ricki Lake.
He’s joined for a couple of songs by the Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus for a mashup of Firework/Someone Like You/Edge of Glory and then Cumming’s first performance of Last Day On Earth, written by his musical director, Lance Horne. Due to technical problems with the sound both me and my companion for the evening found them to be all but inaudible.
Despite Cumming having discussed the ludicrous ritual of the encore we duly clap with the requisite desperation the second he leaves the stage. We’re rewarded with a brilliant take on Sondheim’s Ladies Who Lunch, normally a lightly acidic confection but here delivered with more than a hint of madness, of something spiralling out of control.
The Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus will be joining Cumming once again this evening for his show at the London Palladium.