Rufus Wainwright Hits the Road and the Silver Screen

Rufus Wainwright has been on the road since April, and he has more shows booked in Europe and North America straight through December. But the singer – who embraced an upbeat pop sound for this year's Out of the Game – isn't complaining about his busy schedule. "I feel very fortunate that I'm still in the game, even though I'm pretending to be out of it," Wainwright tells Rolling Stone.

Wainwright's current live act fully embodies the bright, colorful vibe of the new album. "It's a really fun show," he says. "The concerts I did for the last album [2010's All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu] were just solo piano and me alone onstage crying my eyes out for six months all over the world, because my mother [folk great Kate McGarrigle] had just died. I'm definitely having a little bit of a better time now."

Wainwright is also excited to be working with Tony-winning director Enda Walsh on a movie musical tentatively titled The Great White Way, which will use songs from his back catalog. "We're really early in that process," he says. "It's loosely based on my life – very, very loose. Perhaps it's more of a kind of mythic Rufus that he's trying to create. It stems from some of my past glories and tragic endings, but it's by no means a biography of me or anything."

PBS' Live from the Artists Den filmed a recent Wainwright performance at New York's Church of the Ascension. The episode is set to air this fall but, in the meantime, you can check out a clip featuring the new tune "Jericho" here: