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Stepping out of character onstage is a bit out of character for most actors. That's why Alan Cumming says he was at first scared, and then exhilarated, at taking the leap to headline his own self-titled cabaret show. "It's such a big leap for an actor to suddenly be playing themselves," he says.

The Tony-winning actor will be celebrating New Year's Eve in Utah performing "Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs." After a sold-out Carnegie Hall performance earlier this year, Cumming released a concert album; a recording from a Las Vegas concert aired on PBS last month.

"New Year's isn't just another show, it's 'That Night,' " says Teri Orr, executive director of the Park City Institute. "It feels transitional, weighty, in need of a bit of magic." Past shows have featured Broadway legends such as Kristin Chenoweth and Bernadette Peters, and Orr was seeking to repeat that star power, but with a male performer.

Critics have raved about the emotional punch of Cumming's storytelling concert, with The Guardian terming it "an intimate evening with dirty jokes."

"In the underpopulated arena of male cabaret singers, Mr. Cumming may be the only one with the talent and drive to change its direction," raved Stephen Holden in The New York Times, terming the performer an "exotic, androgynous provocateur and pansexual pied piper."

Americans are most likely to recognize Cumming as Eli Stone, the manipulative political fixer he played for seven seasons on TV's "The Good Wife." His movie résumé ranges from "Circle of Friends" to series like "Spy Kids" and "X-Men" and art-house movies such as "Eyes Wide Shut."

On Broadway, he earned cultish devotion from fans for his mesmerizing turn as the master of ceremonies in 2014's dark revival of "Cabaret," a role he had earlier played in 1998 and on London's West End in 1993.

In fact, many of the sad songs in his cabaret concert were ones the actor fell in love with while singing with friends in his backstage dressing-room nightclub — Club Cumming — while performing on Broadway.

The concerts feed his acting, says the Scottish native, now a naturalized American citizen, as he has learned to be more comfortable letting himself come through his characters. It was Liza Minnelli (she won an Oscar for her role in "Cabaret," while he won a Tony for his role) who taught him the performer's trick to think of a good song as having the structure of a play, with a beginning, middle and ending. That advice helped him transform himself from an "actor who sings" to a cabaret performer.

Cumming admits the irony of preaching authenticity while working in a field that deals in make-believe. "Even in artifice, if you're authentic about it, it's better," he says, adding that he loves going to new cities and forcing himself to be "honest, authentic and passionate" onstage. He reminds himself of that goal with a recent small tattoo he had burned into his left forearm: "Only connect," the famous line from E.M. Forster's "Howards End."

Mentioning that fresh ink prompts another infamous tat story. In his concert, Cumming recounts how he and a former boyfriend, Raven, got each other's names inked onto their groins. After their monthslong relationship ended, Cumming eventually had the name painfully lasered off his body.

At a show the night before this interview, he was performing in Raven's hometown of Cleveland. He asked Raven to come onstage, drop his drawers and show off his namesake tattoo, "alan," now transformed into "balance." That bit brought down the house, Cumming reported.

Just like his movie roles, the concert set list of sappy songs shows off Cumming's range, with covers of songs by Billy Joel, Katy Perry, Adele, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus and Avril Lavigne, as well as musical-theater greats, such as Stephen Sondheim's "The Ladies Who Lunch." Cumming advises listeners "to have a hanky at the ready."

He gathered material for his show during the life-changing, dramatic summer of 2010, when he appeared on the British genealogy reality TV show "Who Do You Think You Are?" As cameras were filming, he learned more about the tragic mystery of his grandfather's death after World War II. And off-camera, he learned his difficult father believed he wasn't really his son, which caused the actor to reconsider the physical and emotional abuse his father had meted out during his childhood. Both of those stories are revealed in his frank 2014 memoir, "Not My Father's Son."

Writing the book was a huge leap toward embracing his own vulnerability, he says, "and this show is definitely reflective of that."

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Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs

The Tony Award-winning actor rings in the New Year with a cabaret concert at Park City Institute.

When • Dec. 31, 8 p.m.

Where • George S. & Dolores Doré Eccles Center for the Performing Arts, 1750 Kearns Blvd., Park City

Tickets • $49, $109, $189 (includes after-party), at tickets.parkcity.institute or 435-655-3114

More from Alan Cumming • The actor suggests his newest book, a photo-biography published in September, "You Gotta Get Bigger Dreams" (Rizzoli, $29.95), would make a perfect Christmas present.

More • Upcoming shows include Van Jones speaking about criminal-justice reform on Jan. 7; Jessica Lang Dance company on Jan. 13; Fran Lebowitz on Feb. 4; and Portland lounge singer Storm Large on Feb. 18. Tickets and information at ecclescenter.org.