The acclaimed Scottish actor and cabaret performer Alan Cumming has been named as the first-ever international Artistic Director of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, succeeding Julia Zemiro. His appointment was announced at the conclusion of this year’s digital festival, Bite-Sized & Home Delivered, which replaced the planned program in the wake of COVID-19.

Alan Cumming. Photo © Buzzfeed News

“I first came to Adelaide over thirty years ago and have always loved the welcome I’ve received there,” said Cumming. “And of course cabaret, with a big and small c, has always been very close to my heart!

“So to be asked to come and curate Adelaide Cabaret Festival after this missing year, to be able to bring together the most vibrant of the world’s cabaret performers, to ask them to entertain us, provoke us, make sense of the maelstrom we’re living through, and most of all remind us why cabaret is such a vital form of connection between performer and audience – well, it doesn’t get much better! And apparently you have some nice wine too!”

Based in New York, where he owns a cabaret bar in the East Village, Cumming has had an extensive...