Full house for dry humour and lush music

Rufus Wainwright and guests | Eden Court, Inverness | Saturday, June 22

By Margaret Chrystall

Watching the theatre in Inverness fill up on Saturday night, you couldn’t help feeling that this alternative-looking and savvy bunch might be hard to woo.

In the current climate, any political party would be glad to claim these RUFUS WAINWRIGHT fans for their own.

But as the night of music demonstrated, their loud applause and warm reception for the musician’s songs, jokes and banter showed their hearts have already been claimed long-since by the American-Canadian Wainwright Troubadour Party.

And long before the rapturous final standing ovation (there were two), his crowd had rolled over and enjoyed having their tummies tickled with classic numbers and newer sounds alike.

Shut your eyes during the set of support Alice Faye from Glasgow, and you could almost hear the influence of Rufus on her music – a love of the musician had united Alice and her friend Jamie who featured in one of her songs, she later told us.

But as well as the songs, most at the piano, later guitar, there was an unusual voice to unpack, like Rufus with a big vibrato. But Alice’s voice throbbed, rumbled, wobbled, broke – and soared too – revelling in its strength and power for a set that introduced her unique sound.

Sharing the stage with Rufus was ”crazy and cool” for Alice who confessed it was lovely to get the chance to play in front of his audience.

Songs such as Later Later On lingered with its wry post-break up lament – “In some ways it’s lovely to hear from you, baby, to hear that you are doing well, but it will be good some day if I don’t need to know …”

After a break, Rufus hit the stage and us with his Dream Requiem written during Covid and which was only presented for its world premiere in Paris (Meryl Streep narrating) 10 days ago.

It made a great chance to reacquaint yourself with what Rufus Wainwright’s voice can do, swooping, unfurling and stretching out with the piano rumbling beneath. It was also a reminder that opera was an early great love of the young musician.

But just as you’re reminding yourself of classical-loving Rufus, he follows with pop number Vibrate, an ode to waiting for that call without much hope.

Then he’s telling us, like a fanboy, about being in Paris and getting to spend time with Meryl Streep for his Dream Requiem.

“You got to hang out for a week, studying Byron and eating fatty foods!”

He goes on to say he is at the start of his vacation heading for Skye with his husband and reminiscing about being a boy with his dad, American folk/rock legend Loudon Wainwright III, tagging along on a previous eventful trip there.

Then it’s back to his opera Hadrian and an aria he turned into a folk song. Starting to explain the story of He Loved, he stops and laughs at himself: “It’s so boring!”

His knowing look makes us play along, part of his gang.

The stories and the songs take you back and across this rollercoaster career of the singer and musician, born into music royalty, but determined to do everything his own way – follow his heart, parade honesty and passion. The dramatic and his playfulness rub shoulders, the mercurial journey so far goes from classical to the music of Judy Garland, the sonnets of Shakespeare and the constant push to explore original work of his own.

You get all that for your ticket price and a set of songs that collect up lots of big moments like his political game-changer Going To A Town (makes you think right now) or his Leonard Cohen covers.

But there’s also a special moment for Inverness, as the town’s starriest soprano, Janis Kelly – key figure in the development and performance of his opera Prima Donna – joined Rufus to sing The Last Rose Of Summer.

“For a long time I thought this song was Scottish,” Rufus admitted. “But it’s Irish.

“Janis sang it at my mother’s [Kate McGarrigle’s] funeral in Montreal,” he adds.

It was a stunning performance that set the scene for the encore.

But first, Rufus subtly introduced the subject of Opening Night, his musical in the West End that closed recently, earlier than planned. He returned to it after new number Old Song, his wish for the theatre’s happy Pride event and song Gay Messiah.

Mentioning his Dream Requiem, he said: “I did another big project, Opening Night – which was an artistic triumph.”

The tongue-in-cheek tone returned later: “So would you like to hear a song from Opening Night?”

Curious to hear the number, it was good having Rufus on guitar singing a moving performance of his number Ready For Battle. Created from the story of a John Cassavetes film, the musical starred Sheridan Smith, and told the story of an actress having to confront a ghost. It had received four 4-star reviews, Rufus mentioned. He told us he was heartbroken it had closed early, but was open enough to share the experience with us – and the music.

He veered back onto familiar territory to make us laugh: “Now I’m going to cheer you up with Leonard Cohen!”

The late master songwriter’s reputation for depressing songs might be a standing joke for non-fans (are they idiots?!). But these days Rufus probably has every right to tap into the Cohen dynasty as father of daughter Viva with Lorca Cohen, Leonard’s daughter.

He made a powerful version of So Long, Marianne his own, before his big-hitters Poses and Cigarettes And Chocolate Milk led to a standing ovation and raucous heartfelt applause.

Counting down, it was time to hope for a final encore that had been drop-dead gorgeous at a wintry Strathpeffer Pavilion in 2016.

Rufus’s parting gift, Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah and a voice to do it justice.

Two voices. He and Janis Kelly returned and released the song’s power and all the invisible melting emotions an audience tries to hide as they get to their feet, standing and clapping a maverick’s triumph, one final time.