Alan Cumming Talks His Stage Show, ‘Och & Oy! A Considered Cabaret,’ and Returning His OBE

Few people are as supremely qualified to tackle the eclectic, multidimensional job of cabaret performer as Alan Cumming. The wildly versatile Scottish-born actor has excelled in just about every artistic medium, working on stage, in film and TV, writing adult and kid fiction, penning a memoir, singing and recording, even serving as a correspondent for multiple marquee publications. 

It’s hard to know whether Cumming, 58, is better known for his role on the CBS drama The Good Wife [for which he earned multiple Emmy and Golden Globe nominations], his time on Broadway — where, not surprisingly, he played the master of ceremonies in Cabaret for which he won a Tony Award in 1998 for Best Actor in a Musical — or his turn as a nefarious computer programmer in the 1995 James Bond film, GoldenEye. And let’s not forget the Robert Rodriguez-helmed Spy Kids trilogy, last year’s head-spinning documentary, My Old School or his new hit reality show The Traitors.

Really, the convivial star is beyond gifted; it feels as though cabaret was invented for artists like him. Which makes Cumming’s latest venture, Och & Oy! A Considered Cabaret, a rather thrilling proposition. 

Alongside American radio journalist Ari Shapiro, a host on National Public Radio’s flagship program, All Things Considered, Cumming performs songs, tells jokes and stories, leads singalongs and leverages his vast performance repertoire to transport audiences, at least for the duration of the show.

Says Cumming from his New York City home, Och & Oy! A Considered Cabaret “is just a good, thought-provoking night out.” Though judging by multiple clips on YouTube, it’s a good deal more than that — and not recommended for children. 

 

Cumming spoke with Zoomer via Zoom about the show, playing Toronto’s Massey Hall on March 4, and his recent return of his Order of the British Empire (OBE) medal due to “misgivings I have being associated with the toxicity of empire.”

 

KIM HUGHES: For the record, what is the origin story of Och & Oy?

ALAN CUMMING: Ari interviewed me a couple of times. We did some appearances and we had good banter. He was challenging, which I liked, and he sang. [Shapiro guests in the musical collective Pink Martini].  One time we were doing a thing in Washington which was a real hoot. As we were walking off, I said, ‘We have great chemistry, we should do a show together.’ He gasped and said, ‘Don’t say it if you don’t mean it!’ We went out that night, had a laugh and talked more about it. The next morning, I called him and said, ‘I still mean it.’ This was spring 2019.

We are an odd couple, and we play on that in the show. We sing songs and tell stories. It’s a great way of showing that people really aren’t that different. We have a lot more in common than we might expect. I’m Scottish and he’s Jewish. Ari has spent lots of time in Scotland, I’ve played a Jewish person on TV for a long time [as Eli Gold on The Good Wife]. We tend to do shows in spurts and we’re still catching up on shows that were derailed by the pandemic. We have a residency coming up at the Café Carlyle here in New York after Toronto. That’ll be nice. 

 

 

 

KH: The venue you’re playing in Toronto, Massey Hall, is quite large. How do you retain the intimacy of a cabaret show?

AC: I don’t think intimacy with an audience is about the size of the venue. It’s how you connect with them. Doing cabaret, you end up telling very personal things about yourself and you’re very vulnerable to an audience. That’s where the intimacy comes from. You could create intimacy in a stadium if you do things properly. That’s the great thing about a show like this: it’s two guys, two friends mucking about, riffing, talking about things in their minds and singing these lovely songs. We are authentically faking authenticity. It’s all about the performers’ commitment to it and projecting to people. In fact, I think about this so much that I did this. [Cumming reveals his left forearm, which has a tattoo that reads, in lower case, ‘only connect.’]

 

KH: The show is billboarded as “a night full of stories, songs and fun jokes.” Can you expand on that a bit?

AC: We talk about how we are different but have many things in common, about coming out, sexuality, getting married, big things, funny things. I talk a bit about Scotland and finding yourself. At the end we do this thing called Celebrity Roulette where Ari says, ‘Mention any celebrity and Alan will have a story about them.’ And it’s kind of true because I’ve been around the block so many times! It’s quite structured though people think we’re making it up as we go along, which is great. At the end of the day, it’s just an old-fashioned cabaret with lots of songs people will be familiar with although we do kind of mash them up. By the end, everyone is singing along and it’s just a good, thought-provoking night out. 

 

 

KH: Do you tailor your shows to a given audience?

AC: Not really. We have fashioned ourselves so that I’m the naughty one and Ari is the more conservative journalist, but we get into stuff people might not have expected to hear about. We don’t pander to the audience. We do the show we want to do. It’s a question of getting to know people. It’s like my cabaret bar here in New York, Club Cumming [described as a ‘buzzy, celeb-owned bar with drag & cabaret shows, plus other diverse entertainment’]. One of my favourite things is when people tell me they went because it’s my bar but found that everyone was so kind and chatty, and they met people they never would have met otherwise. That to me is a great night. That’s what cabaret should be: it should expose you to things you might not have expected.

 

KH: No disrespect to your accompanist, the pianist Henry Koperski, but you guys performing with Rufus Wainwright would be cool.

AC: Nah, he’d talk too much [laughs].

 

KH: You recently had your 58th birthday and celebrated by returning your OBE. I understand why, but I’m wondering how? I’m guessing they don’t hand out self-addressed, stamped envelopes at the ceremony just in case.

AC: It was actually quite difficult. I wrote an email which was essentially what I wrote on my Instagram post, saying I was very grateful, but I felt it was time [to return it]. I sent it to totally to the wrong person and they were like, ‘Send it over there to Brigadier Blah Blah’ [laughs]. I eventually found the right person and they were remarkably understanding. I actually wonder if more people have done it of late? But you have to physically send the little box with your medal back. Fair enough. What was hilarious was when they emailed to say they had received it. They were so gracious and said, ‘It’s here. If you ever change your mind, you can have it back!’ The British government is storing my OBE in case I ever change my mind. I’m not going to. But I thought that was a cute way to end it all. 

Och & Oy! A Considered Cabaret, comes to Toronto’s Massey Hall on March 4. For more information, or to purchase tickets, click here.

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