Both are part of the LGBT community, though Grey is a more recent addition, having publicly come out last January.
Both own small dogs — Grey, a Chihauhua named Nicky and Cumming, a Chihuahua-Rat Terrier mix named Jerry.
Both have written memoirs. Cumming’s — Not My Father’s Son — was published in 2014 while Grey’s — Master of Ceremonies — reaches Amazon in a few weeks.
Both have found success on television. Grey has enjoyed almost 60 years of television appearances, including guest arcs on both Alias and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, while Cumming has brought to life, with brilliant, vivid nuance, the Emmy-nominated role of Eli Gold on CBS hit The Good Wife.
Both have had astonishing stage careers. Grey originated the role of The Wizard of Oz in Wicked and Amos Hart in Chicago, while Cumming has played in everything from Hamlet to Bent to The Threepenny Opera. But their Broadway link lies with Kander and Ebb’s classic Cabaret: Each won a Tony Award for playing The Emcee. Grey originated the showy — and show-stopping — part in the original Broadway production in the ’60s (and later in the 1972 film, for which he took home an Oscar). Years later, in 1998, Cumming won a Tony for darker, more sexualized take on the part.
And both are coming to our city: Cumming, 51, will be at Strathmore on Valentine’s Day — Sunday, Feb. 14 — with his critically heralded cabaret, Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs, while the 83-year-old Grey will settle into the Historic Sixth & I Synagogue on Feb. 23, for an in-depth conversation about his book, his life, and his remarkable career.
In 2015, it all seemed to be a novel concept. That's the year Jordan Harrison's Pulitzer Prize-nominated Marjorie Prime premiered Off-Broadway. Certainly, artificial intelligence had been developed, but in the ten years since, its sophistication and abilities have reached levels that are both beneficial and ethically questionable. Now, the piece has returned, this time on Broadway.
The use of AI rests at the center of Harrison's drama about Marjorie (June Squibb), an octogenarian who lives with her daughter, Tess (Cynthia Nixon), and her son-in-law Jon (Danny Burstein). Christopher Lowell rounds out the cast as Walter, a computerized version of Marjorie's deceased husband, known as a "Prime." With short-term memory loss and slight dementia plaguing Marjorie, the robotic form of her late spouse reappears in his thirties and relays information provided to him by Jon and Tess.
Jacob Dickey doesn't have a to-do list of musical roles. But if he did have a to-do list, he says, "I feel like Sky Masterson would definitely be on that to-do list."
Good thing, then, that he's currently starring as Sky Masterson in the Shakespeare Theatre's vibrant new production of Guys and Dolls, directed by the Washington National Opera's Francesca Zambello.
Romping through Runyonland alongside Rob Coletti as fellow gambler Nathan Detroit, Julie Benko as missionary Sarah Brown, and Hayley Podschun as saucy showgirl Miss Adelaide, Dickey cuts a dashing figure in a role he's practically been preparing for since before his voice changed.
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