Musicals are living their High Life in Scotland, says Alan Cumming

Musicals are living their High Life in Scotland, says Alan Cumming8 hours agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GooglePA MediaAlan Cumming has taken to the stage in The High Life: The MusicalAlan Cumming believes he's having a musical renaissance.The Traitors presenter, actor and artistic director of Pitlochry Festival Theatre has only ever starred in two musicals in his career – 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."I'm not really a musical expert or aficionado," he says."But in 2026, I will be in more musicals in one year than in the rest of my career in the theatre."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.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.Among them, Once, which will open Cumming's inaugural season at Pitlochry next week.'Real sense of community'Although set in a Dublin pub, the stage version of Once has distinctly Scottish roots. It was created by John Tiffany at the request of former Bond producer Barbara Broccoli."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."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."My whole apprenticeship for life, work and heart was here in Scotland. Glasgow University, the Traverse Theatre and the Nationa...