Alan Cumming - public appearances

 
Alan Cumming launches 'Lucid Conversations' 

For the record, Alan Cumming saying the word "babyism" is funny. His Scottish accent clips the vowels, so "baby" sounds like "bebe," and the "-ism" follows without a breath like the whole thing is a real word. Susan Sarandon, the inaugural guest at what's set to be a monthly gathering of Cumming's friends and friends-of-friends, was confused. 

During the hour of conversation she and Cumming conducted Monday night in front of 30 or so onlookers in a rented-out Donald Trump bar in midtown Manhattan, nothing stumped her, except the word "babyism." (You can hear Cumming saying it in the recording below this story). By then the discussion had meandered from neaps and tatties, the Scottish names for turnips and potatoes (which Sarandon noted would also make good names for twins, and Cumming thought would work well for dogs) to how Sarandon's first child, the actress Eva Amurri, had been conceived. "I had been put in the hospital and they said I had very severe endometriosis, which is a condition that a lot of women have," Sarandon said. "It's one of these not diagnosed conditions that can be quite, quite devastating. Actually, Padma Lakshmi had it." 

Sarandon sat across from Cumming. Both were on velvet-upholstered bar stools facing the crowd, with bright green glasses of absinthe stirred with Midori on the raised table in front of them. The drinks came from Lucid Absinthe, the sole corporate sponsor of Cumming's private gatherings, or "old-fashioned artistic salons," as he's billing the series (the official name: "Lucid Conversations"). During his introduction at the start of the evening, Cumming referenced the long history of absinthe use among artists and jokingly thanked Lucid for restoring the "lost art" of patronage. 

Read and hear more at Huffington Post

 

 
Alan Cumming joins Public Sings! benefit cast 
An updated lineup of performers has been announced for Public Sings!, a benefit concert to be held on Monday, March 5 in Joe's Pub (New York). Daisy Prince will direct the performance, with musical direction by Chris Fenwick. The show will celebrate the history of musicals that have been produced by the theater, including Hair, A Chorus Line, and Caroline, or Change, as well as new musicals that are in development for the theater's stages, such as February House.  
Alan Cumming, Montego Glover, Gabriel Kahane, Ethan Lipton, Kelli O'Hara, and Benjamin Walker will join the previously reported cast members Laura Benanti, David Byrne, Raul Esparza, Jesse L. Martin, and Steven Pasquale. For more information and Public Sings! tickets, call the Development Office at 212-539-8554. 
Source: Theater Mania