‘Glee’ star swings into Christmas
Jane Lynch brings holiday cabaret show to Kutztown University
Jane Lynch says she never planned to be a singer.
And yet the Emmy-winning actress, best known for her six seasons as conniving cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester on the hit Fox TV series “Glee,” has spent the last three years touring with her musical cabaret acts.
On Wednesday she brings her retro holiday cabaret “A Swingin’ Little Christmas” to Kutztown University.
She calls her cabaret career a happy accident.
“I was doing ‘Glee’ and was invited to play Miss Hannigan in ‘Annie’ on Broadway,” she says. “I loved it so much and it re-acquainted me with why I fell in love with this business.”
After doing “Annie” in 2013, she was invited to do a cabaret show at Feinstein’s/ 54 Below, a popular cabaret spot in New York.
“All Broadway people have cabaret shows,” Lynch says. But Lynch didn’t.
She says she knew “I didn’t want to be alone up there.” So she reached out to Kate Flannery, an old friend from her Chicago “Second City” improv comedy days early in her career. Lynch got her start in comedy and was one of only two women in the famed troupe when she joined in the 1980s.
“Kate is so much fun and such a wild card,” Lynch says. “And she’s a wonderful singer.”
Flannery, best known as Meredith on the hit TV NBC series “The Office,” had lots of experience with cabaret, since she has been touring her cult comedy lounge act The Lampshades since 2001.
The two women also worked together with Chicago’s Annoyance Theater on cult spoof “The Real Life Brady Bunch” in which Lynch played Carol Brady and Flannery played housekeeper Alice.
Flannery happily signed on and became Lynch’s sidekick for her cabaret act. The show went so well they took it on the road, calling it “See Jane Sing,” which debuted in 2015.
“It was like stepping into a new pair of pants and finding they fit perfectly,” Lynch says.
Lynch says she had always tried to find an excuse to sneak music into whatever she did.
“I never said I wanted to be a singer,” she says. “I wanted to act and be on stage, but I always loved music.”
In the 2003 mockumentary “A Mighty Wind,” Lynch warbled folk tunes as porn actress-turned-folk singer Laurie Bohner. That film reunited her with Christopher Guest, who directed her in his 2000 improv mockumentary picture “Best in Show,” in which she played a competitive dog trainer.
In the 2005 film “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” Lynch sang a Guatemalan love song to Steve Carell, who starred in the title role.
Lynch says “See Jane Sing” did quite well and they did a 25-show tour that went “all over the place” in 2016.
Also on board for the show were Tim Davis, a singer and vocal arranger for “Glee” and The Tony Guerrero Quintet.
Guerrero, who also is a songwriter, wrote five songs, including the title
track for Lynch’s holiday album “A Swingin’ Little Christmas” which was released in 2017 on Lynch’s own KitschTone Records label.
“We all love Christmas, and this album hearkens to the days of Bing Crosby and the Andrew Sisters with those really tight harmonies,” Lynch says. “We love that late 1950s, early 1960s vibe.”
The album ended up on Billboard’s adult contemporary Top 10 in 2017, so Lynch and her cohorts developed a comically kitsch cabaret act based on the album that Lynch says is a throwback to the old World War II USO shows and 1960’s Christmas specials.
“Kate is a throwback to 1950s,” Lynch says.”She always wears these little dresses and Tim wears a suit everyday like something straight out of “The Office.”
The holiday cabaret is proving to be as much of a hit as Lynch’s first show and the performers have 34 shows booked right up until Christmas Eve.
“Audiences will probably be surprised how musically good it is,” Lynch says.
Davis did music production, as well as singing, for all six seasons of “Glee” from 2009 to 2015, as well as for ABC’s “Boy Band.”
The Tony Guerrero Quintet is a nationally recognized jazz ensemble with multiple CD releases and has been a staple of the Southern California jazz scene for many years. The band led by Guerrero on trumpet and piano, features Matt Johnson on drums, Mark Visher on woodwinds, Dave Siebels on keyboards and David Miller on standup bass.
For the show, the trio of Lynch, Flannery and Davis perform tight three-part harmonies to originals and jazzy arrangements of Christmas classics.
Guerrero’s originals include the comedic “Sentimental Christmas” and the elegant “Winter’s Never Cold (When You’re Around).”
Lynch says a cover of “We Three Kings” has a “Dave Brubeck vibe,” and “Good King Wenceslas” features “Louis Prima-type sound.”
Other songs include “The First Noel” mashed up with Pachelbel’s “Canon in D,” a smooth, sensual jazz version of “Bring a Torch Jeanette Isabella” and an especially jaunty “Up on the Housetop.”
Lynch also promises everyone will come out after the show and greet the audience, posing for photos and signing autographs.
She says she’s been thrilled with the positive reception of the cabarets and she and Flannery are putting together a new act they plan to call “Two Lost Souls.”
“We’re so happy we found each other,” Lynch says.
Lynch is a 10-time Emmy Award nominee who won one for “Glee,” one for the soap opera spoof “Dropping the Soap,” and two for her work as host of “Hollywood Game Night.” Since 2013, she has hosted the NBC game show in which two teams made up of members of the public and celebrities compete in various party games, with a chance for the civilians to win up to $25,000.
In 2017, Lynch also recorded a Christmas single with actor Dick Van Dyke. The song “We’re Going Caroling” was composed and produced by Guerrero and was released on KitschTone Records.
Currently you can hear Lynch in the new animated film “Ralph Breaks the Internet” — reprising her role as Sgt. Tamora Jean Calhoun, who is now blissfully married to Fix-It Felix.
She also hits her comedic sweet spot in the new NFL TV commercial called “The Hopkins Shuffle.” Looking for assistance on a new celebration dance, Houston Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins gets a call from Lynch. While tending to her garden, she reminds DeAndre of the trials and tribulations of his business. After asking if he’s ever seen a mule double-kick a donkey, Lynch unveils DeAndre’s newest touchdown celebration.