[21] The resulting tapes impressed Wainwright's father Loudon, who passed them on to family friend and musician Van Dyke Parks.

During that week, he played a cameo role in the UK comedy television program Absolutely Fabulous, spent several nights partying with George W. Bush's daughter Barbara,[31] enjoyed a "debauched evening" with his mother and Marianne Faithfull, sang with Anohni of Antony and the Johnsons for Zaldy's spring 2003 collection, and experienced recurring hallucinations of his father throughout.

[33] That same year, Wainwright made two major contributions as a solo vocalist to a pair of records: the Mercury Prize-winning Antony and the Johnsons' I Am a Bird Now and Burt Bacharach's At This Time.

The segment concerned Wainwright's sold-out pair of Carnegie Hall shows on June 14 and 15, 2006 in which he performed the entire Judy Garland concert album that was recorded there in 1961.

In an attempt to become more environmentally conscious, participants are asked to live "off the grid" as much as possible on a designated date by unplugging appliances, walking or cycling for transportation, turning out lights and decreasing energy usage in any other ways possible.

Special guests performing at the concert included Joan Wasser, Jenni Muldaur, and friend and fellow singer-songwriter Teddy Thompson.

[40] The organization's official site contains updates about the program and contains links to various tools, green products and services, studies, and groups that promote energy conservation and environmental protection.

[41] In December 2008 Rufus performed alongside his sister, Martha Wainwright, and mother, Kate McGarrigle, as well as many more of his family at the Knitting Factory in downtown Manhattan.

Joined by other artists such as Emmylou Harris, Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson, the cast performed original and traditional Christmas-themed songs.

[46] Instead of a New York opening, Prima Donna was staged during the Manchester International Festival, where the first performance took place at the Palace Theatre on July 10, 2009.

[50] In November 2009, Wainwright announced that he had finished recording his sixth studio album, and was calling it All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu.

[52] In December 2009, Wainwright appeared with sister Martha Wainwright and mother Kate McGarrigle at the Royal Albert Hall in London, raising $55,000 for the Kate McGarrigle Fund, which was established in 2008 to raise awareness of sarcoma, a rare cancer that affects connective tissue such as bone, muscle, nerves, and cartilage.

[55] In July 2011 a 19-disc box set called House of Rufus containing all his studio and live recordings as well as previously unreleased material was released.

[62] In 2015, Wainwright launched a new version of his first opera, accompanied by a film directed by Francesco Vezzoli, featuring Cindy Sherman as the Prima Donna.

A third single, "Peaceful Afternoon", was released on digital platforms in March, with a French version, "Pièce à vivre", as a B-side.

In early April, the album release was delayed until July after escalation of the COVID-19 pandemic, Wainwright stating that "The CD's and vinyl LP's of my new album Unfollow The Rules are stuck in the warehouses they had to shut down to make way for all essential businesses being able to operate at full speed", adding "You know that I am an old school guy and for me the physical product is extremely important.

I am incredibly proud of this album and the way I want you to experience it ideally is listening to it from front to back in the comfort of your living room, reading the lyrics, and looking at the booklet that I carefully designed.

One more single, a tongue-in-cheek commentary on fame and status relative to geographic location entitled "You Ain't Big", was released in early June.

While some songs feature just Wainwright and his piano, his later work is often accompanied by rock instrumentation or a symphony orchestra, displaying complex layering and harmonies with an operatic feel.

Many of his compositions are densely packed amalgams of strings, horns, operatic choruses, and ragtime rhythms, with a warm vocal timbre.

[87] "Memphis Skyline" is a tribute to the late singer Jeff Buckley, whom he met briefly in the 1990s when Wainwright was an up-and-coming act.

He described its use at the rally as "the height of blasphemy" but hoped, without much expectation, that listening to the lyrics of the song might engender a sense of remorse in Trump.

[104] He has also recorded tracks specially for films, including Brokeback Mountain, I Am Sam, Moulin Rouge!, Shrek, Meet the Robinsons, Big Daddy, Zoolander, and Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man.

[107] Stephen Petronio commissioned Wainwright to write a score for his dance production BLOOM, which was performed at Joyce Theater in New York in April 2006.

For the lyrics, the two selected poems by Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, and Petronio arranged for the Young People's Choir of New York to sing them.

[108] In May 2006, Wainwright was one of three guests (along with Robbie Williams and Frances Barber) to star with the Pet Shop Boys in a concert at London's Mermaid Theatre.

In June 2007, Wainwright was a part of the multi-artist True Colors Tour, which traveled through 15 cities in the United States and Canada.

Hosted by comedian Margaret Cho and headlined by Cyndi Lauper, the tour included Debbie Harry, the Gossip, the Indigo Girls, the Dresden Dolls, the MisShapes, and Erasure.

These included dressing in red lipstick and stiletto heeled shoes to perform Judy Garland songs, and expressing his concerns against the current U.S. political situation.

[111] In June 2012, Wainwright released a comedy video on the Funny or Die website, giving his interpretation of a number of jingles from chewing gum commercials.