Alan Cumming

Following his role as Trigorin in Classic Stage Company's The Seagull, Alan Cumming will open the Lincoln Center Festival on July 2, starring in Euripides’s Bacchae by the National Theater of Scotland. The festival will end July 27 with the Gate Theater of Dublin’s Gate/Beckett, three one-man dramas by Beckett that were not originally conceived for the theater: Liam Neeson is in Eh Joe (a television work from 1965), Barry McGovern stars in I’ll Go On (adapted from three novels), and Ralph Fiennes is in First Love (a novella), according to the New York Times. Damon Albarn, leader of the rock bands Blur and Gorillaz, will be at Avery Fisher Hall on July 12 with the Honest Jon’s Revue, featuring musicians from Mr. Albarn’s record label. Tickets go on sale Friday.

Alan Cumming was excited to play a “real man” in the Classic Stage Company’s production of Chekov’s The Seagull. Mr. Cumming, the Tony Award-winning Scot with saucer-size blue eyes and a sly grin, recently played Dorothy’s scarecrow Glitch in the TV miniseries Tin Man and, um, a spacey scientist called Fegan Floop in those Spy Kids movies. (He also had a delightfully sleazy role as a gay nightlife impresario on The L Word.) But in The Seagull, he appears as Trigorin, a broody famous writer who woos Dianne Wiest’s character Arkadina and seduces a budding actress (played by Kelli Garner). “He just seems like a real man,” Mr. Cumming said over the phone, walking to Prana Power Yoga for his regular stretch after a recent play rehearsal. “He’s got everything, but he wants to destroy it. I’ve never played anyone like him.”  read more »

Tony Award winner Alan Cumming will play Trigorin, the lover to Dianne Wiest's magnetic actress, Arkadina, in Anton Chekhov's 1896 play, The Seagull, at Classic Stage Company (136 East 13th Street). It is to be directed by Viacheslav Dolgachev, artistic director of the Moscow New Drama Theatre. Previews begin on Feb. 20, with opening night set for March 13.  read more »

Last night, Milanese fashion label Costume National hosted a party in their Soho boutique commemorating 21 years in the industry. To toast the milestone, the brand known for super-slim-fitting clothes—à la Hedi Slimane—released a weighty book, Costume National: 21 (Assouline). While the Misshapes provided the background tunes for the relatively small gathering, a few guests made themselves cozy by curling up on the store’s chaise lounges, where they sipped red wine and martinis. Never mind all the blaring overhead lights—everyone looked fab, darling.

“I’d be a liar if I told you how,” said actor Willem Dafoe, responding to The Daily Transom’s question about how the brand seemingly attracts an ever-younger and hipper clutch of loyalists each season. “I don’t know about the fashion world, how it really works,” he admitted, speaking in stilted clauses like Christopher Walken in a mob flick.

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Incomprehensible  read more »

At the movies, incomprehensible gibberish has become a way