Photo Source: Brad Taylor
Dressed in a tuxedo t-shirt, the Tony-winner (“Cabaret”) and Emmy-nominated actor (“The Good Wife”) performed a mix of original songs, covers, and showbiz stories for an enthusiastic audience. His original tunes covered a range of topics, including plastic surgery abuse (“Your surgeon won’t tell you you look like Zsa Zsa Gabor”). Cumming also sang about his love for Taylor, his latte boy at a coffee shop (“Thanks for the extra foam”), and a song for his husband, Grant Shaffer. The couple recently got remarried.
A Jerry Herman cover of “I Won’t Send Roses” was also included on the musical lineup. Cumming finished off the night with a mash-up of Adele’s “Someone Like You” and Katy Perry’s “Firework.” He was accompanied on stage by pianist Lance Horn and cellist Meta Weiss.
Cumming’s honesty as a performer was evident, as he moved through his stories and songs with a combination of pyretic passion and a laid-back attitude towards show life. Cumming called out show time traditions like “The Last Song.”
“Why do we do that?” he asked. “We say it’s the last song when really I just get off the stage to stand by the bar for a few seconds. You all clap desperately “wondering” if I’m going to do an encore.
“Then I come back on stage for the real last song... Just because I’ve called it out though, don’t think you don’t have to clap desperately,” he added. “Just pretend it’s a new performance piece about applause.”
Even during fumbles on stage like muting his microphone (“Don’t you think it’s a bit silly to have a mute button right where you hold the microphone?” he asked the audience), he continued with graceful hilarity.
Despite the live show mishaps, audience members related to the show. “A lot of the things he talked about hit so close to my heart, but he did it in a funny way and for a good cause,” said an attendee. “I have like, two latte boys I’m in love with!”
According to Cary Alan Johnson, the Executive Director of the organization, IGLHRC is dedicated to engaging in responses to human rights abuses, working against discriminatory laws, exposing anti-LGBT violence and advocating for economic social right for LGBT people.
The actor is currently playing Eli Gold on CBS’ “The Good Wife,” a divorced gay political operative. When asked what he hopes for Eli Gold in the next season, Cumming replied, “More sex! It’s getting difficult for me to play a man that hasn’t had sex in two years. I’m an actor but that’s a stretch!”
