Peter Goers: I’m no fan of Alan Cumming. And his show was utterly self-indulgent

Peter Goers has been going to the theatre for 50 years. But Cabaret Festival director Alan Cumming’s show has utterly failed to impress him.

Puckish Scottish entertainer Alan Cumming has many fans. Middle-aged women, especially, seem to adore him. He was the headliner and artistic director of our celebrated Cabaret Festival and in collaboration with Alex Sinclair and other producers it was one of the best, most enjoyable and popular cabaret festivals.

Alan Cumming appeared diligently throughout in many shows and was rapturously received.

Cumming has many fans.

A very experienced and discerning theatregoer of my acquaintance saw him as the MC in a revival of a revival of the musical Cabaret on Broadway (for which Cumming won a Tony Award) and said it was the single-greatest performance she had ever seen.

ALAN CUMMING RESPONDS TO THE CRITICISM

As she left the theatre she bought a ticket for the next night to see Cumming again.

Alan Cumming has many fans. Sadly, I’m not among them and I so wanted to be.

In his concert, Alan Cumming Is Not Acting His Age at the Festival Theatre, which was the finale of the Cabaret Festival, he had 90 minutes to prove his stardom and convince me as to why he is such a great and popular performer. He didn’t.

Alan Cumming in his stage show, Alan Cumming Is Not Acting His Age. Picture: Claudio Raschella.

His opening number But Alive from the musical Applause was lovely. Unfortunately, that was the best thing in the show and it was all downhill from there.

In 50 years of avid theatregoing, in my opinion Cumming’s show was the most self-indulgent I’ve ever seen. As a singer he tends to bellow and his gestures (arms up, arms down) are repetitive. If he tousled his hair once more I thought I’d scream.

Rather than proving why we should love him, Cumming told us how much he’s loved by everyone – especially himself. The ego has landed.

He name-drops shamelessly. He even shouted, “I’m Alan Cumming and I can do what the f … I like”. He is an amusing raconteur but, again, it’s all self-love (literally, as he tells us he pleasures himself every day) and he delights in sharing details of his vast sexual promiscuity.

There is scant self-deprecation or humility.

The day after he left Adelaide he appeared on The Project on national TV mainly to announce, sadly, that his national tour is cancelled because of Covid. Having come fresh from Adelaide where he’d been so well-received in his triumph of a cabaret festival, he had not a single good word for us.

Instead, in the tedious, cheap manner of innumerable second-rate Fringe comedians he has taken the money and run to Melbourne to slag Adelaide.

“While I was in Adelaide I got burgled. In the same week that Adelaide was voted the third-most liveable city in the world I got bloody burgled. Then someone said it’s (Adelaide) also got the highest rate per capita of serial killers and there’s also a big meth problem. So, I said, ‘Oh, so it’s the third-most liveable place in the world if you’re a meth addict or a serial killer’”.

Thanks Alan Cumming. How sad.

Cumming enjoyed a great and generous reception in our city. He accepted hospitality from many people, from the Premier down. He made a lot of money in Adelaide.

The only time I’ve seen Cumming on film is in the 2002 movie Nicholas Nickleby. I really enjoyed him. He plays Mr Folair, a self-important, self-promoting, annoying actor who flatters people to their faces and then stabs them in the back. He’s perfect in the role.

Cumming is going, going, gone.

Peter Goers can be heard weeknights and Sundays on ABC Radio Adelaide.