Loose Lips

It may be a while before Alan Cumming‘s fans can see him in the flesh — since the Tony Award-winning actor is off in Hawaii shooting Julie Taymor’s film version of The Tempest — but they can certainly hear him as Chuck, the gruff 50-year-old, wheelchair-bound gay guy with AIDS, on LOGO’ s animated series Rick and Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in the World, which just began its second season. “I didn’t think there would be a second season, because I thought audiences would think it was too crazy and too dirty,” he says. “But I really admire LOGO for sticking with something so provocative; it would be easier for them to put on something bland. And it’s great that we’re at the point that gay people can make fun of themselves.”

Having dropped his Scottish accent for Chuck, Cumming admits lots of people don’t realize that he’s part of the show. “When they asked me to do it, I decided I wanted to come up with an appropriate voice for him, and I went for a little bit of a Borscht Belty Jerry Stiller type of voice,” he says. “I really enjoy doing animated work, because you don’t have to go to makeup every day and get all dolled up. And because you do so much in a short time — I think I recorded the entire season in one day — it’s like a huge surprise when it actually airs. I don’t usually even remember what I did, plus honestly, I often prefer not having to deal with other actors.”

That last statement, however, doesn’t apply to Oscar winner Helen Mirren, who will be playing Prospera (as she’s called) in The Tempest. “I am so looking forward to working with her — she’s a darling — and Julie, who I worked with on Titus,” he says. “I’ve never done the play, but I’ve always liked it, and I’ve never been to Hawaii either. I’d like to do more Shakespeare; I’m talking with Classic Stage Company about doing Iago as part of one of their Monday night readings. That’s a part I’d really like to play. It’s always more fun to be bad and have all the good lines.”

When he returns to New York in January to finish filming The Tempest, he’ll also resume rehearsing his solo concert for Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series, to take place on February 7 at the Allen Room. “I’ve never done anything like this, so I am both very excited and very nervous. People always would ask me if I had a solo show — I think people think when you sing in musicals you just have one ready — so now I can say yes,” he says. “I’ve been working for months with Lance Horne on the song selection and the theme, which is a bit about plowing on in life, and about me coming to America. I’m doing all sorts of music — some stuff from Hedwig and the Angry Itch; ‘That’s Life,’ but not the way Sinatra did it; a medley of two songs, one by Dolly Parton and one by Mika; and William Finn‘s ‘What More Can I Say,’ which I sing in public as much as possible, because it’s so beautiful.”

DEAD ON
In the Transport Group’s novel staging of Irwin Shaw’s anti-war play Bury the Dead, Obie Award winner Donna Lynne Champlin has two very different tasks; the first is doing a 15-minute curtain-raising monologue as a modern-day woman who urges her town to stage a reading of the Shaw work, and the second is playing the six women the play’s refuse-to-be-dead dead soldiers talk to. And each act has its specific challenges. “During the monologue, our director Joe Calarco — who I’ve known since I was a teenager and who is truly brilliant — has me moving around the whole time with a lot of stage business, so there’s a lot of muscle memory to learn,” she says. “On the other hand, if I forget a line, the minute I remember the next bit of business, like moving a chair, the line comes backs to me.”

As for playing six women over the span of about 90 minutes, Champlin notes: “I really thought I’d have to pull out all the accents to make sure they were highly differentiated, and in rehearsal, I kept thinking I wasn’t going far enough. And then Joe decided rightly there was no need for me to work that hard. What’s most important is that the audience remains sucked into the play and focus on the dialogue, and not focus on Donna the actress.” And what’s it like being the only woman in the cast? “It’s been fascinating being with all men; it’s like being in an army barracks. I think there’s been some sort of discussion of Star Wars every day,” she says. “But I really feel like I fit right in.”

Champlin was a little more concerned about fitting in on her other recent project: a new musical version of Pride and Prejudice — which had a lavish one night staging in her hometown of Rochester. She played the original novel’s author, Jane Austen, who interacts with her fictional creations. “I was so concerned the idea would be too intrusive that I was not only prepared for them to cut my role in rehearsal, I told them I was even okay with it,” she says. “But it ended up being a lot of fun acting out what she wrote and what she threw out and why. Not only was it very well integrated, I think it even made the show more physically interesting. The reviews were good and it would be lovely if it came to Broadway. I’m really itching to do another Broadway show.”

TAKING THE TOWN

Michael Cumpsty has had quite a distinguished career in musicals for someone who freely claims he’s not a singer — including leading roles in the Broadway revivals of 1776, 42nd Street, and Sunday in the Park With George. His latest musical theater outing is the City Center Encores! production of On the Town, in which he plays Claire de Loone’s naive fiancé, Judge Pitkin W. Bridgework.

“I think of myself as being a visitor to this world of big musicals, but I just love the environment,” he says. “I’ve known John Rando [the director] a long time — though we’ve never worked together — and Jay Binder cast me in my first musical. I played Captain Hook in Peter Pan 20 years ago in Atlanta. In fact, Jay paid for my vocal coaching — and sent me to this young up-and-comer named Ted Sperling.”

Growing up in England, Cumpsty hadn’t seen On the Town in any of its formats. “I am a latecomer to this party. I don’t think I really became aware of the show until I saw George C. Wolfe’s Shakespeare in the Park production, and then I realized where all these great songs I recognized came from,” he says. “Pitkin doesn’t really have a lot to do with the plot, but he’s a really sweet character who gives Claire the benefit of the doubt until it becomes impossible. He’s really just a decent person and that’s nice to play.”

After On the Town closes, Cumpsty’s next gig is a reading of W.H. Auden’s For The Time Being at Symphony Space on December 7 and the New York Society Library on December 8, and then he’s spending the holidays with his family in South Africa. And while he is currently taking a break from his true love — Shakespeare — after three consecutive seasons at Classic Stage Company, rest assured, it’s just a hiatus. “I really would love to do The Winter’s Tale again; it’s the only Shakespeare play I did in England and I wasn’t totally happy with the production,” he says. “And I’ve always wanted to do Much Ado; I have a whole lists of possible Beatrices, including Jayne Atkinson, Cherry Jones and Kathryn Meisle. Of course, I want to do Lear, preferably on the early side so I can do it two or three times so I can get it right, but it’s always hard to tell when you’re just too young.”

HERE, THERE, AND EVERYWHERE
The great Mikhail Baryshnikov watched raptly at a recent performance of the anti-war drama Black Watch at St. Ann’s Warehouse; Constantine Maroulis and fellow cast members from Rock of Ages sampled a sweet treat in their honor — the “I Wanna Rock Root Beer Float” — at the legendary Serendipity; Katie Finneran, Buck Henry, Natasha Lyonne, and John Pankow attended the opening night of the New Group’s riveting production of Mouth to Mouth; and Robert Foxworth applauded fellow August: Osage County star Frank Wood, who recreated his Tony-winning role in the 10th anniversary reunion reading of Side Man at New World Stages.

NORTH STAR
Given her success in the film Juno, in which she played best friend Leah, it’s not surprising that Olivia Thirlby first encountered Beau Willimon‘s Farragut North as a screenplay. But she’s far more excited to be making her professional stage debut in the Atlantic Theater Company’s production of the play, in which she plays the seemingly wise-beyond-her-years Molly, a 19-year-old who gets caught up in a political scandal. “The play is deceivingly simple when you first read it. Beau is such a brilliant writer that it seems like a straightforward story,” she says. “But the complexities and motivations of our characters just deepen with every performance, and all the possibilities are now being illuminated.”

As Thirlby notes, her character is “an eyes on the prize person who gets what she wants” — which, in this case, happens to be sex with wunderkind press secretary Stephen Bellamy (played by John Gallagher, Jr.), and which proves to be more than she bargained for. “I am like Molly in some ways; I usually know what i want, but I don’t pursue it with the same kind of reckless abandon. She’s really fearless. I’m a little more Zen in my approach to life,” she says. “I don’t even remember my audition; all I know is when I walked out of the room, I felt a bit dazed and sleepy and went home to take a nap and when I awoke, there was this lovely call offering me the job. I so didn’t expect it.”

Having studied theater at the American Globe and in a summer program at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, the 22-year-old actress says she was actively looking for a stage role, despite being a hot ticket in Hollywood. “I was afraid if I didn’t start flexing those muscles, they’d simply atrophy and disappear,” she says. “And now I think this show might have spoiled me and I want to do theater forever — especially some Shakespeare. I’m at the right age to play Juliet if anyone’s interested.”