Wherever Rufus Wainwright goes, his path is strewn with critical accolades. But he would be the first to admit it's in the chromosomes, since his father is Loudon Wainwright and his mother is Kate McGarrigle ("I just want to be my dad/With a slight sprinkling of my mother", as he puts it in one of his lyrics). Rufus has gathered the female members of the clan - mum, aunt Anna and his younger sister Martha, plus Anna's daughter Lily Lanken - for a quick spin around the UK.

Kate McGarrigle kept muttering wry apologies for the unrehearsed nature of the show, and there were several glaring errors, but the McGarrigle-esque qualities of yearning timelessness survived intact in Heart Like a Wheel and a satisfyingly heartrending Speak to Me of Mendocino.

Martha's solo piece, Bloody Mother, left the auditorium with expletives dripping down the walls, and Lily's Alice Blue Gown veered on the treacly side of twee, but whenever trouble loomed Rufus sprang to the rescue. There seem to be two Rufuses: the one who sings smooth, high harmonies with his relatives, and the solo performer whose voice has an edge and forcefulness not always apparent on disc.

Though he can blend in immaculately on an old folk song like St James's Infirmary, his own music is more supple and eclectic, occasionally betraying Sondheimian leanings. In Foolish Love, the elegantly literary lyric entwined around the music like honeysuckle, while Hometown Waltz had a mysterious wooziness in its gait. Rufus also flung himself gaily into the fluorescent high camp of Somewhere Over the Rainbow and Goodnight Sweetheart, cavorting at the microphone like Ethel Merman. Christmas at the Wainwrights' must be an extraordinary occasion.

· At Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton (01902 552121), tomorrow then touring.