Perfect grooming

Rufus Wainwright is about to marry his gay lover and is courting mainstream sales with new album Out of the Game, says Ed Power

RUFUS Wainwright wants to get ‘back in the closet.’ “I do seem to ping-pong between the theatrical and the populist,” says the cult singer. “I have written an opera and operated in that realm. Right now, it’s the pop thing. If I could really have my wish, I would climb into the cupboard and go back to Narnia — by which I mean my opera career.”

Wainwright’s new album, Out of the Game, is populist. It is produced by Mark Ronson, Amy Winehouse’s long-term creative partner. “Mark, of course, collaborated with Amy Winehouse, who had passed away literally weeks before we started,” says Wainwright. “I went into the studio with… well, I want to say with her blessing, in a way. Who knew what she truly was thinking. It was interesting, that Mark worked with me as he was coming to terms with her death.”