Rufus Wainwright at The Gramercy Theatre, June 5th 2007

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Watching Rufus Wainwright's first in a row of New York shows at the Gramercy Theatre, a very intimate new venue whose old cinema appeal remains, I was only briefly distracted by the presence of the glowing and flip-flopped Maggie Gyllenhaal just across the aisle. The show featured no songs from Wainwrights first two albums, focusing on the strongest material from his Want cycle and an almost complete reading of Release The Stars, his most recent paean to beauty.

Apart from a wonderful and completely botched reading of Tulsa, his song about a one night stand with a certain Mr Flowers of The Killers, the new songs were beautifully performed, simplified from their sometimes too ornate production. The newly boyfriended Rufus especially impressed with his ode to love (and Berlin) in Tiergarten (mp3) .

With several costume changes (first a striped suit, then lederhosen, a robe, and finally just lipstick, tights, a jacket and hat), an intermission, an a capella unamplified folk song (the romantic Irish standard Macushla), and a dance routine to Wainwright's cover of Judy Garland's Get Happy, the evening certainly made me look forward to Rufus' inevitable Vegas residency.