Alan Cumming takes 'sappy songs' seriously

Award-winning performer Alan Cumming feels equally at home on a movie set, in a TV studio or on stage at Carnegie Hall — or Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis. That's where he will be Saturday, performing his show "Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs."

He seems to be everywhere. Currently he's wrapping up the final season of the CBS series "The Good Wife," in which he plays the ruthless Eli Gold, a man you don't want to cross.

"You just lost your greatest asset and made your worst enemy," he tells his erstwhile boss in one episode.

He's also known for making a splash on Broadway as the leering MC in "Cabaret." As he explains in the current show, doing eight performances a week made it hard to get out and about. So he arranged for people to come to him.

"So my dressing room at Studio 54 after 'Cabaret' became known as 'Club Cumming,'" he says on the live album of "Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs." "And we basically used to have parties there every night. The cast would come up, my friends who were in the show, people would drop by. We would have an absolutely lovely time. We would listen to music, and we'd have drinks. So ... tonight is kind of like Club Cumming, ladies and gentlemen."

But he promises this show packs a punch.

"I really am not joking," he said. "I do sing sappy songs, that are sappy to me. And by 'sappy' I mean full of emotion that I will be fully committing to."

Of course, given Cumming's reputation for always trying to push the envelope, there's a little more going on here. Acting as DJ during the Club Cumming parties, he noticed that his guests always greeted songs they didn't recognize by demanding to know who it was they were hearing.

"And I would realize that they would want to know who it was in order for them to decide how they would react to it — how they would appreciate it," he said. That irritated him, and led him to put together a show of unlikely sappy songs.

"I am actually challenging people to listen to songs that they would scoff at," he said. "And to appreciate them in a different way. Because I think it closes you off to experience, that kind of attitude."

Thus he sings songs by Annie Lennox, Stephen Sondheim, Rufus Wainwright and Elaine Stritch.

There are also a few numbers Cumming put together with his musical director Lance Horne. The New York Times described the show as an "emotional firestorm."

Perhaps that's not surprising, given Cumming's trajectory in show business and in life. He grew up in Scotland, on a country estate where his father was head forester. His father was emotionally and physically abusive, and then later in life revealed he didn't believe Cumming was his son. DNA tests proved him wrong. Alan Cumming told the story in his 2014 memoir, "Not my Father's Son." Since it was published, he's been delighted to hear from people who say it's helped them recover from similarly abusive situations.

"That has been amazing, really truly amazing. And absolutely surprising as well," he said. "When the book was about to be published there were lots of worries and emotions swirling around in my head, and frankly that aspect of it didn't really register with me. So it has been even more kind of powerful for me that it has had that kind of effect."

Cumming talks about his father in the show, but he stresses the performance overall is designed to be funny.

With "The Good Wife" coming to an end, Cumming says he's looking forward to getting back into movies and, as has always been his wont, looking for something new. He describes himself as a magpie, tumbling through life looking for something shiny. "I would call myself a professional storyteller-provocateur," he said. He paused and added, "For hire."

And with a penchant for sappy songs.