Come September, if all goes as planned, Manhattan will have a new gay bar. Well, not new, exactly, a reboot. But oh, what a reboot. The popular gay bar Eastern Bloc, situated in the lower East Village and co-owned by Anderson Cooper’s beau Benjamin Maisani, is taking the surname of a new incoming partner: Alan Cumming.
“We’re planning to change it a little bit so we can have a piano,” the award-winning performer says, quite ebulliently, of Club Cumming. “I want it to feel like anything could happen. Somebody might get up and sing a song…. Or we might just have a man come playing the theremin for an hour. Stuff like that. Try to think outside the box.”
Cumming wants the establishment to extend beyond gay moorings. “I want it to be an omnisexual bar. Obviously, I want gay people to come, but I want straight people, I want anyone who wants to have fun and let go and be non-judgmental. Come in with an open heart and be wanting to have fun.”
Fun is in store this weekend at the Kennedy Center as Cumming returns to the area with his immensely popular Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs, part of the Renée Fleming’s Voices series. Even though Cumming has been performing Sappy Songs for over two years, he’s “still so loving doing it…. It’s so different to how I’ve ever felt doing a play. Because it’s me and I’m being very vulnerable and it’s very personal and authentic, it still feels as fresh and fun to do. I want it to feel like I’m just telling you stories and singing you songs, and having quite an old-fashioned experience, really.”
The Scottish-born actor, who became a household name after seven seasons on The Good Wife playing ambitious, crafty political operative Eli Gold on The Good Wife, holds an American citizenship, so when asked his views on the current administration, he doesn’t hold back.
“Well, I’m devastated,” he says. “I think it’s just terrifying. It’s just a mess. It’s embarrassing as well. I, as an American, am absolutely ashamed and embarrassed that this is what’s happening, and some of the decisions that are being made and the behavior — it’s just so awful.
“The thing that got me the other day was the company that makes the missiles that were sent to Syria, Trump has shares in. So, he actually made money off that missile attack! It’s just so corrupt, it’s so wrong. Every decision that’s made is based on greed.”
Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs is Saturday, April 29 at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Tickets are $29 to $99. Call 202-467-4600 or visit Kennedy-Center.org.
Not for anything I've said over the course of our lively hour-long phone interview one recent Saturday, but for this magazine's past transgressions.
This issue, you see, marks Cho's fourth appearance on a Metro Weekly cover in three decades, and I'm sheepishly begging forgiveness for how we handled the previous headlines, bastardizing her last name for the sake of a pun.
"Cho-Zen."
"On With the Cho."
"Cho Girl."
"It's all good," she laughs, taking it in stride. One thing about Margaret Cho is that she doesn't offend easily, if at all.
For true fans of live music, and the whole concert-going and festival-going experience, Spring 2025 in the DMV is shaping up to be a banner season. And for those who're also fans of queer music and of seeing LGBTQ performers live in concert? Well, we're about to experience a real embarrassment of riches in that regard. And no, not just because of all those coming to town for WorldPride 2025. In fact, the number of out artists stopping through the area both before and after Pride this year is impressive.
Melissa Etheridge is one. Bob Mould another. Also due to visit is Allison Russell, John Grant, Rahsaan Patterson, Halsey, and Lucy Dacus. Not to mention Kylie Minogue, who's got local gay hearts beating padam padam for sure. Down the road, once Pride is a wrap, it'll be Ty Herndon's turn. Also Brandy Clark's. The Indigo Girls, Pink Martini, Laura Jane Grace will all also follow suit. Oh, and Cyndi Lauper will also return to have a little more fun -- and say farewell one more time, after time.
Defying the adage that the lady needs no introduction, Bruce David Klein’s captivating documentary Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story extends a four-minute introduction to its larger-than-life subject Liza Minnelli before the film truly enters the breach, touching down on June 22, 1969, the day her mother Judy Garland died.
In the midst of the preamble performance clips -- presenting Liza as a gangly ingenue onstage with her mother, and as a superstar commanding the world’s stages on her own -- Klein runs amusing outtakes of Liza, present-day, sitting for interviews but not at all passively. Dressed in head-to-toe black, her trademark pixie cut topped by a newsboy cap, she commands the room tenaciously, directing the cameraman on how to shoot her.
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
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