On Friday Owen and I went to see Alan Cumming's one man show I BOUGHT A BLUE CAR TODAY which is playing a week at the Vaudeville Theatre.

It was an interesting event, especially after seeing Beverley Knight the night before. Whereas Beverley totally gave herself over to every song, you could see Alan Cumming pausing during each intro, thinking himself into right 'attitude' to sing the song. I guess both approaches are valid but it lead one to muse on the style.I first became aware of him as one half of the riotous double act Victor and Barry with Forbes Masson. They were a kinda camp concert party pianist and singer who appeared occasionally on stand-up shows in the mid-80s. They morphed into Sebastian and Steve, the bickering air stewards on the BBC sitcom THE HIGH LIFE. By then he had already appeared as the Emcee in Sam Mendes' reinterpretation of CABARET at the Donmar Warehouse, it was only when it eventually transferred to Broadway in 1998 that he became that most misnamed of creatures, an overnight sensation!

He has since found it hard in roles being offered to shake off the persona that the Emcee established for him - dark, reptilian, pansexual. His career in mainstream film has been constant but hardly laudable but he is carving out a nice niche in offbeat documentaries - he co-produced the excellent SHOW BUSINESS which covered the 2003-4 Broadway season. He is also a player in the gay celeb world which has resulted in an OBE for his services "to the community" as well as to his profession.

He has a great personality on stage, winning and tart, and he certainly had an interesting setlist comprising songs from a diverse range of talent from Cyndi Lauper to Dori Preven, from Cole Porter to Victoria Wood. He also provided a good overview of his career with a particularly touching mention to Natasha Richardson who "held his hand" during the madness of the Cabaret period.He was ably assisted by the talented Lance Horne as his music director/pianist who also wrote several on the songs in the setlist. If I had a quibble about the show is on balance there seemed to be one too many touchy-feely love songs which were an odd contrast to his more caustic on-stage banter.

The show has kind of vanished out of my mind to be honest for the lovely coda to the evening! After our post-show visit to the loo we came out to find the audience mostly dispersed so Owen headed to the foyer bar to buy Cumming's cd of the show while out of the corner of my eye I saw a guy taking photos of his lady friend as she lay on the foyer carpet! I thought "Girl you are gonna catch something off that floor" just as I also realised that the bloke was Neil Gaiman ergo the other person was none other than Amanda Palmer. I tugged Owen's sleeve and the look on his face was priceless!
As always Owen had his Dresden Dolls "Punk Cabaret Is Freedom" badge on so after shyly butting into the photo shoot he was rewarded with Amanda bouncing up off the floor and giving him a big hug! We had a lovely chat with them - we told Amanda that we had talked about her in the interval as the first act closer Alan C had sang a wild version of "Mein Herr" which Amanda has sung live as well as "I Don't Care Much" which he also mentioned! She said she was going around to see him so hoped he was a fan - bless.
We talked about her upcoming gigs at the Union Chapel and when Owen told her he was going to both nights she said that immediately decided her mind to change the set list! We bade them a fond farewell and I then walked to Leicester Square Station with Owen bouncing off the clouds like a happy Owen-shaped balloon! And to think everyone in the foyer bar before the show were whispering behind their hands and jittery because Geri Halliwell was there! Who knew there was a singer there as well?