Once again, life is about to be a cabaret for Alan Cumming. The Tony-winning actor, who broke into Broadway with the 1998 production of “Cabaret,” will be performing an autobiographical show at Feinstein’s for five nights beginning Tuesday.
It’s been a bumper year for Cumming, who was recently upgraded to a series regular on CBS’s “The Good Wife.” Not to mention his voice-over work, activism for bisexual causes and support of kilt-wearing.
The Post caught up with him in a rare spare moment.
Given your Broadway success, a cabaret act seems like a natural. What took so long?
I’ve always sung within a role before. If you asked me a year and a half ago to stand up and sing a song, I would be having panic attacks. It’s great to be really scared of something, and then just do it.
So you’re still scared of singing like this?
In a funny sort of way, it’s inevitable and probably quite necessary. Especially this Tuesday — it’s the first time I’ve ever played at Feinstein’s — kind of a different crowd for me, I think. I’m right to be nervous, you know?
What should we expect?
It’s not just me singing beautiful songs and sounding nice — it’s my whole sensibility. I’m going to hopefully provoke people politically and tell them funny stories about how I look at the world as a Scot living in America.
What happened to playing the Green Goblin in Broadway’s “Spider-Man?”
The “Spider-Man” people couldn’t seem to work out that I’d be able to do both [the show and “The Good Wife.”] So I was, “All right. Life goes on.”
You also started the Web site itsasickness.com, where people talk about their obsessions.
People don’t have hobbies anymore — they have obsessions. They’re sick about things! It’s been fun to see how much people love that they can go somewhere where there’s no judgment, and they can just geek out about the most random things.