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.
If you need relief from these stressful and angst-ridden times, you're sure to find something to salve your soul in this section. If you crave a good laugh attack, for starters, look to the "Because They're Funny Comedy Festival," or seek out specific comedians and eccentrics known to get the job done, be it John Waters or Paula Poundstone (both coming to the Birchmere), or Jessica Kirson or Margaret Cho (coming to the Warner), or Leslie Jones, who will be at The Clarice later this winter. To name only five.
Of course, if you'd prefer to get serious and really contemplate and converse about our woeful state of affairs, you'll find plenty of ways to do that, as well. Start by consulting the lineup of noted authors coming to local bookstores and even a certain historic synagogue.
'Tis a season for celebrating significant milestones in dance, including an amazing honor for one of the most revered names ever to be associated with the art form. The Martha Graham Dance Company, appearing in 2026 at the Kennedy Center, will be marking its 100th year sharing founder Graham's singular vision of movement.
The company's major anniversary, along with many others over the 2025-26 season, offers sweet reassurance that dance is forever and shall remain. Meanwhile, a full menu of new works on tap represents what keeps dance moving forward.
Audiences can relish revisiting beloved perennials, like some of the most exciting Nutcrackers you'll find anywhere, and catch up with companies who've been doing this for decades -- from Mark Morris Dance Group and Pilobolus, visiting twice this season, to the Washington Ballet.
Metro Weekly magazine was barely a year and a half old when, in 1995, we were offered the chance to interview — and photograph — Broadway legend Carol Channing, then appearing at the Kennedy Center in Hello, Dolly! that fall. Two moments from that experience stand out, the first at the photo shoot with Annie Adjchavanich.
We'd set up a black velvet backdrop in the Hall of States and were waiting for Miss Channing to arrive. When she finally swept in, she looked radiant. Except… she refused to remove her enormous sunglasses. Indoors.
I begged her to take them off, but she firmly declined. "I don't have my eyelashes on," she said. "You are not seeing me without my eyelashes!" And that was that — sunglasses it would be. The result was a cover that was both thrilling (Carol Channing!) and oddly surreal (Carol Channing in giant sunglasses!).
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