Usually, there’s a story I’ve told that leads up to why I’m singing the song. The whole concept of the show was about being authentic and connecting with these songs. The best way to do that was in a room with an audience and for people to listen to that.
ALAN CUMMINGIf you are a cabaret artist and you are mostly singing other people’s songs, you’re asking them to rethink a song, listen to it in a different way. The most impact you can have while asking them to re-listen to a song is if it’s a song they know very well.
More Alan Cumming Quotes
-
-
I think American actors are much more intimidated by Shakespeare. I actually want to do this Shakespeare play in New York, but I think it’s interesting that there’s this gaping hole in the repertoire in the American theater, which is Shakespeare.
ALAN CUMMING -
I’m Scottish first, and it’s odd to hear that I’m a Scottish-American.
ALAN CUMMING -
I started to itch to do a play again and ‘Macbeth’ came to the surface in my mind. I never thought I would do it in a conventional way. A sweaty Macbeth with blood on his arms coming in fresh from the battle doesn’t interest me.
ALAN CUMMING -
You can feel it coming and you can see where it is going to take you but you are powerless, utterly powerless to stop it. I know now.
ALAN CUMMING -
Romeo is the most misunderstood character in literature, I think. He’s hardcore to play because he’s displaying the characteristics of Hamlet at the beginning, and, well, then everything else happens.
ALAN CUMMING -
In my first year at drama school, I did this kids’ show called ‘Let’s See.
ALAN CUMMING -
Most people will never know anything beyond what they see with their own two eyes.
ALAN CUMMING -
I don’t feel I’m a compulsive person. I multitask. I’m really well-organised, and I have lots of people to help me.
ALAN CUMMING -
I actually find in America, there’s a slight snobbery about actors who go back and forth between big heavy dramas and popcorn fare. That always intrigues me, because that doesn’t exist in the same way in Britain. And I imagine it would be worse.
ALAN CUMMING -
The thing with film and theater is that you always know the story so you can play certain cues in each scene with the knowledge that you know where the story’s going to end and how it’s going to go. But on television nobody knows what’s going to happen, even the writers.
ALAN CUMMING -
I’m not a fan of Twitter.
ALAN CUMMING -
He … knew, in that instant, that his life would not be an easy one-he was different, he looked different, he thought differently.
ALAN CUMMING -
My feeling about work is it’s much more about the experience of doing it than the end product. Sometimes things that are really great and make lots of money are miserable to make, and vice versa.
ALAN CUMMING -
I was so scared of going back to the theatre after Hamlet. I didn’t know if I’d do a play again because I was afraid of the power of it.
ALAN CUMMING -
I come more to Scotland than I ever used to, so I feel more connected to it, more part of the zeitgeist. You know when you realize you have a choice and I’m choosing my homeland. It’s funny: when you get older these things creep up to you.
ALAN CUMMING