{"id":457402,"date":"2026-05-24T09:30:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T09:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/457402\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T09:30:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T09:30:21","slug":"musicals-are-living-their-high-life-in-scotland-says-alan-cumming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/457402\/","title":{"rendered":"Musicals are living their High Life in Scotland, says Alan Cumming"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alan Cumming believes he’s having a musical renaissance.<\/p>\n

The Traitors presenter, actor and artistic director of Pitlochry Festival Theatre has only ever starred in two musicals in his career \u2013 Cabaret on Broadway in 1998, when he won a Tony Award for his portrayal of the Emcee, and eight years later, a production of The Threepenny Opera.<\/p>\n

“I’m not really a musical expert or aficionado,” he says.<\/p>\n

“But in 2026, I will be in more musicals in one year than in the rest of my career in the theatre.”<\/p>\n

He’s currently appearing in the National Theatre of Scotland’s production of The High Life: The Musical and will appear in The History of Paper and My Fair Lady, two of the shows in his first season as director at Pitlochry Festival Theatre<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And he’s not alone. It feels as if the whole country is having a musical renaissance at the moment, with a steady stream of new shows opening in theatres across the country.<\/p>\n

Among them, Once, which will open Cumming’s inaugural season at Pitlochry next week.<\/p>\n

‘Real sense of community’<\/p>\n

Although set in a Dublin pub, the stage version of Once has distinctly Scottish roots.<\/p>\n

It was created by John Tiffany at the request of former Bond producer Barbara Broccoli.<\/p>\n

“I thought she was mad,” he recalls, “but there was a scene which chimed in the film, of a big Dublin house party, where everyone does their turn and that I thought was the way in, only we used a pub where they swapped Czech and Irish folk songs.”<\/p>\n

At the time, he was taking a sabbatical from the National Theatre of Scotland in the US and Black Watch, which he’d directed and co-created, was on tour there.<\/p>\n

“My whole apprenticeship for life, work and heart was here in Scotland. Glasgow University, the Traverse Theatre and the National Theatre of Scotland.<\/p>\n

“So I made the show out of the person I was then, someone who was passionate about the particular characteristics of Scottish theatre, like music and direct address and a real sense of community.”<\/p>\n

The show was a huge hit, winning eight Tony Awards, and ran on Broadway for three years. But it’s never been to Scotland until now.<\/p>\n

Alan Cumming’s friendship with John and connection to Barbara Broccoli through his role in the Bond movie GoldenEye meant it could be secured quickly.<\/p>\n

But it’s not just Pitlochry where musically-based shows are blooming. Across the country there are a number of new homegrown shows, and many more to come.<\/p>\n

Another National Theatre of Scotland show, The Lee Jeans Musical, will continue to tour as The High Life: The Musical draws to a close.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A unanimous vote for a sit-in at the Lee Jeans factory in Greenock [Mirrorpix via Getty Images]<\/p>\n

It tells the true story of the seven month sit-in at the Lee Jeans factory in Greenock<\/a> in 1981 and is interspersed with pop songs of the time.<\/p>\n

Frances Poet, who wrote the script, also wrote the play Small Acts of Love, which reopened the Citizens Theatre last autumn<\/a>. Ricky Ross, who created the music for that show, also co-created Black Diamonds and the Blue Brazil about the passion of a small-town football club.<\/p>\n

Another musician, Colin MacIntyre of Mull Historical Society, is developing a show about the Battle of Culloden.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the independent producing company Raw Material will launch a new hip hop musical about William Wallace this autumn, having started the year with Scots the Musical, a satirical rave through Scottish history in song.<\/p>\n

“I think there has always been a strong tradition of theatre and music in Scotland,” says co-director Gillian Garritty.<\/p>\n

“Folk singing is storytelling in song. It’s part of our identity, so it doesn’t take a huge leap to put it on stage in Scotland.<\/p>\n

“But they’re not jukebox musicals, it’s theatre where the songs and music drive the stories forward.”<\/p>\n

\"Performers<\/p>\n

Alan Cumming says the range of stories being told through musicals is “really exciting” [PA Media]<\/p>\n

Her co-director, Margaret-Anne O’Donnell, believes the boom in musical theatre may be down to timing.<\/p>\n

“It takes a long time to put a musical together. They’re bigger and require more investment,” she says.<\/p>\n

She also believes there’s a rich selection of talented performers, ready to follow in the footsteps of the previous generation.<\/p>\n

One of their next projects is a pantomime with Forbes Masson, who co-created and starred in The High Life TV show and subsequent musical, which grew out of his collaboration with Alan Cumming on the comedy act Victor and Barry.<\/p>\n

They all worked together at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow in the early 90s.<\/p>\n

“We did everything. It was a great time to be working, but none of us had any idea what we were in the middle of,” says Gillian.<\/p>\n

For Forbes Masson, the period was vital to the work he does now.<\/p>\n

“We started with Michael Boyd at the Tron pantomime and we wanted to get the essence of that postmodern, Scottish music hall culture and put it on a big stage,” he says.<\/p>\n

\"Alan<\/p>\n

Alan Cumming was announced as the new artistic director for Pitlochry in 2024 [PA Media]<\/p>\n

As well as the pantomime Aladdie at Cumbernauld Theatre, Forbes Masson also has plans for a number of new productions, which, like The High Life: The Musical, will be homegrown and for a Scottish audience.<\/p>\n

“Alan coming and taking over at Pitlochry has been a huge shot of adrenaline to Scottish theatre and I think we both want to come back and give stuff back to Scotland,” says Masson.<\/p>\n

“There’s no theatre that’s available for me to run, but I’m going to work in theatres that I used to work in and create work for them, starting off at Cumbernauld.<\/p>\n

“That’s where I first saw Wildcat when I was at school.”<\/p>\n

He also hopes to revive some of his early stage musicals, including Mince from 2001, as well as creating brand new shows.<\/p>\n

A boom in musical theatre isn’t uncommon in troubled times, when audiences want some escapist entertainment, particularly if it tells a story about their own culture.<\/p>\n

But in his new role as artistic director as well as performer, Alan Cumming believes it’s vital the sector is adequately funded.<\/p>\n

“I think there’s something about the range of topics that people are taking on now that’s really exciting and shows their confidence,” he says.<\/p>\n

“Sometimes when things are rocky and you don’t feel supported, what you do is turn up the volume and get cracking. But I don’t agree that people make better art when they’re challenged.<\/p>\n

“I think people make better art when they feel supported and they are not worrying about where the next meal’s coming from.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alan Cumming believes he’s having a musical renaissance. The Traitors presenter, actor and artistic director of Pitlochry Festival…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[16520,104197,61817,146,85,46,213330,89482,213328,85292,213329,213331,213332],"class_list":["post-457402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-alan-cumming","tag-artistic-director","tag-barbara-broccoli","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-john-tiffany","tag-musical-renaissance","tag-national-theatre-of-scotland","tag-pa-media","tag-pitlochry-festival-theatre","tag-scottish-theatre","tag-traverse-theatre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}