ACTOR Alan Cumming has said he will make a return to musical theatre next year and has teased plans to take a production from Pitlochry to Broadway to help put the Scottish town under the American spotlight.
Cumming, who took over as the creative director at Pitlochry Festival Theatre in September, spoke to an intimate audience at the venue on Friday as he kicked off the Winter Words Festival setting out his vision to transform the space into a creative community hub.
The Scottish actor who is best known for TV shows like The Traitors US and The Good Wife along with a host of films and theatre productions grew up a few miles away from Pitlochry in Aberfeldy as he pledged more opportunities for local talent to get involved.
Cumming spoke about how he feels like a “fraud” when people around the world identify him with musical theatre as he’s only taken to the stage to do two productions but teased there is a third appearance in the pipeline.
The actor is best known for his musical theatre role in Cabaret and also starred in a production of Threepenny Opera, as he joked he has his “niche”.
He said: “I feel like such a fraud because I did cabaret, I went to Broadway, it was a big deal.
“It's actually in a funny way, really amazing looking back on my life.
“I'd done some films in Hollywood by the time I did Cabaret, but basically a piece of theatre made me a big star in America.
“I don't think that's very normal, and I think it's actually really incredible that a theatre can still do that, and you can connect with the country.”
Cumming (below) joked that he remembered going on a road trip a few years after he finished Cabaret the first time and he was approached by a man in a coffee shop in Denver who had recognised him from the show despite never having seen it.
“I just find that mind-blowing,” he added.
He acknowledged that his back catalogue is predominantly filled more with TV and film rather than musical theatre, as he had only starred in just two productions, which he said is “going to change”.
Cumming announced he was going to do his third-ever musical theatre production at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre next season which was met with rapturous applause by the audience.
He spoke at length about how theatre can still be magical and can connect with audiences but stated it needed to reconnect with its theatrical roots as he felt it had become “too much like TV and film”.
Another aspect of the new role as creative director Cumming said he had plans to highlight Scotland's and in particular Pitlochry’s talent as he wants to showcase it to an international audience.
Although he remained tight-lipped on the details, he did tease that he has plans to take a production from Pitlochry Festival Theatre and take it to Broadway.
Cumming said that when he was applying for the role of creative director at the theatre, the mantra in the application was to “take Pitlochry to the world and the world to Pitlochry” which is something he said he can do.
He added: “In my first season already, in fact, I just got word this morning that one of the shows will be going to New York, it will be going to Broadway.”
He went on to outline his plans to give productions in Pitlochry the opportunity to travel to places like New York, London and other places in Scotland off the back of his own success hosting the US version of the BBC hit show The Traitors.
“I am aware I have a reach, a power, an increase in that right now which coincides with me being here,” Cumming said.
He added that in addition to the work he does as a creative director, he wants to bring a larger audience to Pitlochry and to Scotland’s creative industry as a whole.
