(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- State Theatre New Jersey presents Alan Cumming: Uncut on Saturday, June 22, 2024 at 8:00pm. The multi-hyphenate, multi-award winning, multimedia mogul returns to STNJ with a new cabaret show, even more revealing, hilarious, and authentic than ever before. It is, in fact, Alan Cumming: Uncut. With musical direction by Henry Koperski.
Alan Cumming trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Before graduating he had already made his professional theatre, film, and television debuts and soon found himself celebrated for both his TV work.
In 1988, he appeared in Manfred Karge’s Conquest of the South Pole at the Traverse theatre in Edinburgh. The play transferred to the Royal Court in London, and he received his first Olivier award nomination. He went on to work with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre where he won an Olivier award for his performance in Dario Fo’s Accidental Death Of An Anarchist.
In 1992, Cumming made his feature film debut in Ian Sellar’s Prague opposite Bruno Ganz and Sandrine Bonnaire. His introduction to American audiences came with Circle of Friends, followed shortly by Goldeneye and Emma. His other feature films include Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, X2:X Men United, the Spy Kids Trilogy, Burlesque, and smaller independent films like Titus and Sweet Land. With Jennifer Jason Leigh he wrote, produced, directed, and acted in The Anniversary Party, which won them a National Board of Review award and two Independent Spirit nominations. More recently he appeared in George Lucas’ Strange Magic, Travis Fine’s Any Day Now, Battle of the Sexes, Neil Jordan’s Marlowe, Katie Holmes’ Rare Objects, and Jono McLeod’s My Old School.
In 1998, Cabaret opened on Broadway and Cumming was instantly embraced by New York City and heralded for his stunning performance as the Master of Ceremonies. He won the Tony®, Drama Desk, Outer Critics’ Circle, NY Press, Theater World, FANY, and New York Public Advocate’s awards for his work.
He has continued to work on Broadway in Noel Coward’s Design For Living, The Threepenny Opera opposite Cyndi Lauper and Off Broadway in Jean Genet’s Elle (which he also adapted) and The Seagull, opposite Dianne Wiest. He returned to the West End in 2006 in Martin Sherman’s Bent, closely followed by a triumphant return to his homeland in the National Theatre of Scotland’s production of Euripides’ The Bacchae, which opened the 2007 Edinburgh International Festival and toured Scotland, before transferring to London and New York. His next collaboration with the NTS and director John Tiffany was a radical reimagining of Macbeth, which premiered at the Tramway in Glasgow in 2012 and the following year Cumming’s tour de force performance of all the play’s roles stormed Broadway. He returned to Broadway, Studio 54 and Cabaret once more in 2014-15, recreating his now legendary performance opposite the Sally Bowles of Michelle Williams, Emma Stone, and Sienna Miller. Most recently he was seen in New York in Jeremy O. Harris’ Daddy and opposite Daniel Radcliffe in Beckett’s Endgame at the Old Vic in London.
His many UK television appearances include The High Life (written and performed with his Victor and Barry cohort Forbes Masson), Bernard and the Genie (British Comedy Award), Mark Cousins’ Heavenly, and more recently the miniseries The Runaway, Queers (the series of monologues curated by Mark Gatiss to mark the decriminalization of homosexuality) a highly acclaimed turn as King James in Doctor Who, and the much loved docu-series Miriam and Alan: Lost In Scotland in which he traveled round his homeland in a van with Miriam Margolyes. In the U.S. he has appeared in Broad City, Sex In The City, Frasier, The L Word, Web Therapy, and is also the host of PBS’ Masterpiece Mystery. He played Eli Gold in seven seasons of the CBS series The Good Wife, for which he has received multiple Golden Globe, Emmy®, SAG, Critics’ Circle, and Satellite Awards nominations, and starred in the CBS series Instinct, which premiered in March 2018 and made history by being the first ever U.S. network drama to have a leading character who was also gay. He was most recently seen in Apple TV+’s Schmigadoon and is the host of the U.S. version of the cultural phenomenon known as The Traitors!
In 2015, he premiered his cabaret show, Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs, at the legendary Café Carlyle in New York City. The show was described by the New York Times as an ‘emotional firestorm’ and went on to tour all over America, Canada, Australia, England, and was the hit of the 2016 Edinburgh International Festival—a particular source of pride for him as this was where he first performed in cabaret, with Victor and Barry, 32 years earlier! The show was filmed for a PBS special, and a live album of the same name was released in February 2016 to coincide with his sold-out debut at NYC’s Carnegie Hall. His next cabaret show, Legal Immigrant, debuted in 2018 and was recorded for Audible, followed by Alan Cumming Is Not Acting His Age, which debuted at the 2021 Adelaide Cabaret Festival before touring the world and ending up on Broadway at Studio 54. He is currently touring with NPR’s Ari Shapiro in Och and Oy: A Considered Cabaret!, as well as Uncut, which he developed at the Yaddo artists retreat and premiered in April 2024.
As an author Cumming made his debut with a novel, Tommy’s Tale, and in 2014 released a memoir Not My Father’s Son, which became a #1 New York Times bestseller and the recipient of the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Award, two Audible awards, an Audie award, and a Lambda Literary award nomination.
Tickets range from $39-$129 and are available for purchase online or by calling State Theatre Guest Services at 732-246-SHOW (7469). State Theatre Guest Services, located at 15 Livingston Ave, New Brunswick NJ, is open by phone and email only, Tuesday through Friday from 11:00am to 5:00pm. For in-person purchases, Guest Services is open Tuesday through Friday from 12:00pm to 4:30pm. Additional ticket and transaction fees may apply.
After major renovations, State Theatre New Jersey celebrated its 100th Anniversary in December 2021 in a fully renovated theater including newly renovated lobbies, all new restrooms, upgraded HVAC systems, a new elevator for access to all levels, and brand-new theater seats. Originally built as a silent film and vaudeville palace, State Theatre’s historic significance was honored by PBS by featuring it in its documentary series, Treasures of New Jersey, in the fall of 2018. “Treasures of New Jersey: State Theatre New Jersey” can be streamed online.
Today, State Theatre is the largest performing arts center in Central New Jersey and has welcomed more than six million people through its doors since reopening as a nonprofit performing arts center in 1988. State Theatre New Jersey is a cornerstone of the cultural vitality of Middlesex County and averages a total economic impact on New Brunswick and the surrounding area of more than $18 million a year. The mainstage programs have featured high-caliber artists such as Diana Ross, Tom Jones, Kevin Hart, Ringo Starr, Melissa Etheridge, John Leguizamo, Harry Connick, Jr., Diana Krall, and Crosby, Stills & Nash. Program offerings include Broadway, orchestra, family, dance, comedy, rock/pop, jazz, Performances for Schools, and Sensory-Friendly Performances.
State Theatre New Jersey’s programs are made possible by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. Grant funding has been provided by the Middlesex County Board of County Commissioners through a grant award from the Middlesex County Cultural and Arts Trust Fund.
