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Alan Cumming: "Baggage"

 Like most of the world, I’m delighted by Alan Cumming. I was happy to purchase his new memoir.

 

Cumming grew up on stormy seas, somewhere in Scotland, and he won independence from his abusive father. Cumming later confronted his father with memories of years of mistreatment, and Cumming, Sr., froze up; the most that came from this confrontation was a shrug and an I don’t know what you’re talking about.

 

But: no matter. Alan Cumming began a major film career, with Circle of Friends, Romy and Michele, and Emma. Sam Mendes thought he wanted to revive “Cabaret,” with a new emphasis on seediness, and Alan Cumming signed on.

 

The Broadway revival of “Cabaret” was such a smash, Lauren Bacall attended. Bacall cornered Cumming afterward and said, “You. Are. A. Star.” When Liza Minnelli made her pilgrimage, Cumming had the task of shepherding Minnelli in front of the Broadway crowd. And Cumming was so nervous during his rushed Tony acceptance speech, he was basically able only to say, “I thank everyone Natasha Richardson thanked – except for Liam Neeson.” Cumming had successfully reinvented a role that was once “the iconic Joel Grey role”; it’s rare for someone to take another person’s Oscar-winning work, and refashion it fully, and this is what Cumming did.

 

Cumming tells stories in an effortless way; he has crazy Faye Dunaway with him, at one point, at an awards ceremony, and Faye tries to weigh her egg-salad sandwich on a medieval scale (one stored in her purse) right before the commercial break ends. Cumming recalls himself dangling from various harnesses—in the role of a mutant, in “X2”—and the cameras couldn’t roll because Bryan Singer had, once again, disappeared. Cumming also recalls the “intervention” in reference to Singer’s bad behavior; Singer lashed out at his own compassionate cast, and Halle Berry stormed off, but not before saying, “You can kiss my Black ass.”

 

Did I learn anything from this book? I don’t think so. Well, I learned that Liza Minnelli has never viewed herself as “a real singer.” And I learned that Cumming had a mystical rooftop theater garden throughout the run of “Cabaret,” and he would retreat to the garden in times of exhaustion and stress.

 

Can you think of a better way to spend twenty dollars?

 

I was transported and enthralled. I recommend the book.

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