Alan Cumming - 'I Bought A Blue Car Today'

Last night we went to see Alan Cumming in his one-man show, 'I Bought A Blue Car Today', at the Vaudeville Theatre. It's a song and talk show about his ten years living in America and the title comes from part of his US citizenship test in which applicants have to write down a sentence that's dictated to them and, at his exam, 'I bought a blue car car today' was the sentence.

When we got there we headed for the bar since there was some time to kill and while chatting who should come up to the bar near us but Geri Hallewell with her petite posse. Geri looked well but I thought the time of the tartan miniskirt had passed.

Alan's show is about two hours with an interval and he started very energetically by opening with Cyndi Lauper's 'Shine' since he worked with her a few years ago on Broadway. And that set the tone for the evening, with some chat about his experiences over the past ten years and a song related in some way to what he's been talking about. He's got a nice singing voice and it's nice to hear a Scots burr underneath some of the lyrics and phrasing. It's also nice to just hear him talk and waiting for the revelation of where he's subtley taken us before he reaches the next song.

He had a seven-piece band as well as his musical director on piano, and three members of the band were born in the year he made his West End debut so he not so subtley commented on their ages throughout the show in the manner of a man coming to terms with the sudden onslaught of age. Still, he looks good on it.

He's an accomplished raconteur with a story for every situation and we got a goodly selection last night - how he wanted to get citizenship to vote for Obama but it came through three days after the election, his trip to Dollywood, playing various shows with big names, onsets of nerves, his marriage to his boyfriend, meeting Mika, his friend Graham Norton... you name it, it was in there somewhere. I enjoyed it, I liked hearing his tales.

Of the songs, I'd single out three: 'Next To Me' about waking up in the morning to see his husband so he knows everything is all right, including the chorus that says something like 'holidays, the British kind lying on a beach and drinking too much, not the American kind that involve religion and is not fun' (or something like that). He sang 'Mein Herr' from 'Cabaret' a surprise choice dedicated to Natasha Richardson who died earlier this year, with Alan singing it in a moody Glasweigan way. I'd also single out 'Unexpressed' a tender love song after which he said we needed more same-sex love songs. The comedy songs included a Victoria Wood song and a lovely one about the 'Latte Boy'.

He was great fun and I'd happily see him again. The current show is only on for another couple of nights so see it if you can. You might not be lucky enough to see Amanda Palmer, of course ...