Jane Lynch is best known for her standout roles in Glee and Only Murders in the Building, but she’s equally at home on stage. This fall, Jane Lynch is teaming up with her longtime friend and collaborator Kate Flannery, best known for her role as Meredith in The Office, in a new cabaret-style show called The Trouble With Angels.
The tour includes stops in Medford and Redding, where audiences can expect quick-witted comedy and music that reaches back to the late 1950s and early ’60s.
From Chicago improv to cabaret stages
Lynch and Flannery’s collaboration has roots stretching back more than three decades. The two met in Chicago’s improv and sketch scene in the late 1980s, crossing paths at both Second City and the Annoyance Theater. One of their earliest hits together was The Real Live Brady Bunch, a tongue-in-cheek stage show where actors reenacted episodes of the sitcom word for word. It toured nationally, cementing their creative bond.
Beyond their professional chemistry, the two share a personal background that influences their current show. “We’re both Irish Catholic girls,” Lynch said. “She’s from Philadelphia, I’m from Chicago. We both had dads who loved music—Irish music, but also the music of the late ’50s and early ’60s.” That shared musical upbringing made it easy for the duo to build shows around the songs that shaped their childhood homes.
For Lynch, the partnership has endured due to a balance of trust and playful tension. “Kate’s unpredictable, spontaneous, sometimes imprecise,” she said. “I toe the line, and I heard the cat that is Kate Flannery.”
Vintage pop shapes the set list
The Trouble With Angels centers on the American pop sound that both grew up listening to at home.
One highlight, Lynch said, is their rendition of “Far From the Home I Love” from Fiddler on the Roof, performed in the style of the Barry Sisters, a Yiddish jazz duo from Brooklyn. “Two Irish Catholic girls singing a composition by two Yiddish girls—I think that’s kind of funny,” Lynch said.
The pair trade off harmonies and leads, leaning into their complementary voices and comedic dynamic. “We make use of our own particular talents," Lynch said, "and they tend to meld very well."
Comedy remains Jane Lynch’s creative core
While the show highlights her vocal chops, Lynch says her love for comedy remains at the center of her work. “I’m kind of a scientist of comedy,” she said. “I’m kind of mining a situation for the absurdity of it.”
Her comic perspective comes less from poking fun at others than from exploring her own quirks. “Anything that I do in my career that’s comedy is stuff that comes right from me — of my own fears of humiliation, fears of embarrassment,” she said.
From Glee’s Sue Sylvester to The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s Sophie Lennon, Lynch has often embodied characters defined by their over-the-top confidence. “I do tend to play a lot of people who are shameless and arrogant,” she said. “But when you know where it lives in you, and you’re able to laugh at that, that’s gold.”
Tour prep rooted in trust and experience
Instead of a long development process, Lynch and Flannery prepared the show in just a handful of rehearsals. “We kind of know what we’re doing. We know how each other work,” Lynch said. After a few emails, it was time to put the act together. “We did a rehearsal with the guys a couple of weeks ago, where we all went down to our drummer’s house in Orange County.”That sense of familiarity comes from years of working together on the road. “We do a Christmas show that we tour all over the country for the last 10 years,” Lynch said. “But we decided to put this one together just to have another vehicle for us to hit the road where we’re together and having fun and really, you know, doing the music that we love so much.”
The creative circle includes Flannery’s partner, photographer Chris Hasting, who shoots promotional photos. “It’s really an in-house kind of a production,” Lynch said. “A family affair.”
Even with the easy preparation, Lynch admits to nerves before debuting a new show. “I’m always a little nervous when we start,” she said. “But once you get that first performance under your belt, it feels much better.” Her advice to young performers is the same mantra she follows herself: “You gotta do, do, do. Say yes to everything, and throw yourself off the cliff.”
Meet the jazz band behind the cabaret sound
No cabaret show is complete without a great band, and Lynch and Flannery found a perfect partner in music director Tony Guerrero. A prolific jazz composer, arranger, and trumpeter, Guerrero has crafted every arrangement for The Trouble With Angels.
Lynch praises both his musicianship and his stage presence. “We couldn’t do what we do without Tony. He’s musically a genius,” she said. “And he’s a really funny guy too — very dry. He’s as much a presence on stage as we are.”
Guerrero is also a superfan of jazz legend Louis Armstrong. “He holds the second most amount of paraphernalia of Louis Armstrong.” Second only to the Louis Armstrong Museum in New York.
The Trouble with Angels featuring Jane Lynch & Kate Flannery, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 5 at the Cascade Theatre, 1731 Market St., Redding, California; and 7:00 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 13 at the Craterian Theater, 23 S. Central Ave., Medford, Oregon.
