Jane Lynch Plans Musical Holiday Show At Ridgefield Playhouse
Jane Lynch loves Christmas. Despite her image as snarky gym teacher Sue Sylvester, a role she played for six seasons in the hit TV series Glee, the actress says it’s the music that makes her reconnect to the holiday seasons of her youth.
“Christmas was a big deal for me growing up as a kid [in the suburbs of Chicago],” says the Emmy and Golden Globe winner, who also hosts NBC’s Hollywood Game Night. “We always started playing the music right after Thanksgiving.”
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That’s why she jumped at the opportunity to put together a holiday show with music. The touring show Jane Lynch: A Swingin’ Little Christmas will play the Ridgefield Playhouseon Dec. 2. It was a natural since she and her musician pals last year put out a popular jazz-infused holiday album, which is available on iTunes and Amazon.
The show, which includes Kate Flanneryof TV’s The Office, singer and Glee vocal arranger Tim Davis, and The Tony Guerrero Quintet, features some new holiday tunes but also takes some of the classics and adds the upbeat orchestrations of the sizzling band, she says. “It’s festive, fun and playful. It’s real old-school jazz with the three-part harmonies.”
The tour ends the week before Christmas and then it’s back to her extended family in Illinois. “Nobody does Christmas like Chicago.” (She confesses she only opens one present on Christmas Eve. “The rest wait till the morning.”)
And what does she want for Christmas?
“Nothing! I need nothing. And neither do you,” she says, laughing. “I just want everybody to be happy and for all of us to be one again. Let there be peace on Earth. Really.”