Actresses Jane Lynch and Kate Flannery are teaming up this holiday season and hitting the road. The album—A Swingin' Little Christmas! Jane Lynch—features Lynch, Flannery and singer Tim Davis. It was recorded in 2016 and has led them to perform 34 shows all over the country this season.
The Tony Guerrero Quintet supported them for the two City Winery shows on Nov. 30 in Chicago. The single "Winter's Never Cold" brought them a number eight hit on the Billboard charts.
Lynch and Flannery spoke briefly before the set with Windy City Times. The two talented performers originally met at Second City in Chicago but really grew to be friends at the Annoyance Theatre.
When asked how gay the yuletide would be at this concert, Lynch laughed. "This show is for everybody, but it's very campy. It's just for the community and nobody else," the out entertainer joked in a sinister Sue Sylvester voice. "I love the meaning of 'gay' now, because it means what it actually means instead of what it used to mean—and you can quote me on that!"
The group is on a tour bus and out on the road these days. Flannery said a must-have item on the bus is a popcorn popper and Lynch's only demand was to listen to MSNBC on her earbuds. Lynch explained, "We are not actually sleeping on the bus—although I slept for eight hours on the bus the other day on the way to Chicago from Kansas, and it was perfect. We are in hotels because we are divas!"
She then said Flannery was the biggest diva on the tour, "only because her throat is sore so we are all working around it." Much like The Brady Bunch Christmas episode in which Carol Brady had to battle throat problems during a performance, Flannery tries to rest. "This show has a big range. It is easy to sing the songs in the studio but can be difficult live. We are doing it one show at a time," Flannery confessed.
Many years ago, the two were both in The Real Live Branch Bunch Show that grew out of Chicago improv in which Lynch played Carol and Flannery played Alice the maid, among other roles. "We did that episode that you mentioned and I had to sing," Lynch said.
She was then asked if there will be more Ralph Breaks the Internet movies planned after the success of the current one. [Editor's note: Lynch voices Sergeant Calhoun in the animated movie.] Lynch said, "I think they left it where there will be more. It was so delightful and such a gem."
Flannery—who played a drunken Meredith on the U.S. version of the TV comedy The Office—was questioned about her favorite holiday drink. "It's called a white trash Russian. It's just vodka and Yoo-hoo." Lynch followed that by saying she no longer drinks but used to love coffee and Baileys while living in Chicago. Flannery then said, "That's like a time machine for me. It reminds me of the Gaslight across the Steppenwolf Theatre in the old days." The Glee actress reminisced that the Gaslight is no longer there but it had "great hamburgers served in understated plastic baskets and wax paper."
The duo have a show called Two Lost Souls that they just performed for two nights at New York's Cafe Carlyle, and will take it to Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles on Jan. 22. They are hoping to take Two Lost Souls around to more cities when they're not on the current holiday tour.
