Hannah Waddingham – Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas

By starrymag | November 22, 2023

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

 

Q) Could tell us a little bit of how this project came together?

A) Well, I had guested on a couple of things here and there. And actually in basic terms, my fabulous manager, Nick Todisco, said to me, you know, we should actually do something here because you have such a beloved fan base from theater, both in the West End and on Broadway for like 22 years of my life. It was the first thing I ever did. And he was like, you know, people should see that. People should see that you are not just the bits and pieces you’ve sung on Ted Lasso, but, you know, that as well. Sudeikis saying, you know, we’ve gotta get you singing. And me saying, “Well, why would a football club owner sing?” And he was like, “Because you’re going to sing. We are not gonna not have you singing.” So I have a lot of people who’ve had my back that I need to be grateful for. And so when we thought, what home would it have? Apple was such a natural choice because they had celebrated that part of my career. And so we just said to them, we would love to do a thing, but it needs to be on stage to have that part of my life very present, joining the newest part of my life that people know me mostly for. And they were straight away, we are in. Let’s do it. What do you want it to look like? What do you want it to sound like? And they’ve been absolutely amazing bedfellows and I couldn’t be more proud. I don’t usually toot my horn, but I’m so proud of this special.

Q) After years of being a star on this British stage and you get to show now, you know, your voice with “Ted Lasso,” but what does it mean for you to showcase all of your range now to a global audience?

A) Yeah, that’s the greatest thing because, you know, the thing I was most known for was my range on the musical stage. So that was also a big pressure that I put on myself for this special. I wanted to find songs where I could do what I like doing with songs and pick songs that are very famous, but to kind of reinvent them in my own way. And thankfully, my brilliant musical supervisor, Dave Tench, was totally down for that. And I love the fact that the artists that I have joining me, they aren’t just like famous singers. They are musicians. And that was the prerequisite for me. Everyone on that stage has to have music in their bones. And I think that’s very obvious.

Q) Speaking of the stage that you chose; this special was filmed at the London Coliseum. Tell us why that was the perfect home for this?

A) It was the only home that I could possibly imagine. And there’s another way in which Apple was incredible. You can imagine the magnificent venues that they were leveling at me, and I couldn’t believe the great privilege of what they were coming out with. And I hope that we will circle back to another one of those venues in particular. But for this one, for my first foray into this, the meeting of theater and TV together, it had to be where it all started for me, which was sitting as a little girl in the theater, as the orchestras Americans call it, but in the stalls. In the UK we call it, sitting as a little girl watching the English National Opera with my mom singing on that stage as a mezzo-soprano for 30 years at the home of the English International Opera of the London Coliseum. It was a no-brainer. And I couldn’t believe that Apple managed to get that theater for me, and in no uncertain terms. We were there for a whole week really bedded in. And then when the English International Opera Chorus, five or six of whom are still chorister from my mum’s era when they offered to come and sing with me on that stage, I mean, makes my throat go, ugh.

Q) Wow, that must have meant so much for you.

A) Beautiful.

Q) Can you talk about how you chose the songs to perform?

A) Well, the biggest thing for me is the psychology of an audience. And I said that to my musical supervisor. I said, we need to walk on that stage. And because of course, there is the theater community globally that will know me and they’re in the pocket already. But for people who don’t know me purely from Ted Lasso doing the bits and pieces of singing I did, I need to let them know that I know what I’m doing. I need to let them know that the band know what they’re doing. The backing vocalists know what they’re doing. So you need to come out and, you know, slap everyone around the face, metaphorically speaking, with the first song. Slap ’em around the face with the second song, and then they know where they are. They can kick their shoes off and go, okay, she’s got this. The band have got this. And it was a real, I’m very interested always in the psychology of a live audience. I wanted to let them know that they didn’t need to worry about my voice. I know what I’m doing. My guests knew what they were doing. And I just wanted people to feel relaxed and happy and be taken on a journey as much as we do in Ted Lasso that thing of, before you know it, you are laughing and crying within a minute of each other.

Q) This special includes many special guests from across your career and your life. What challenges were in fitting everybody in less than an hour?

Yeah. Well, you know, when something is less than an hour like that, you need to make sure that you have absolutely the cream of the crop. And I was offered some fabulous guests, but I didn’t feel like I had a particular connection with them. I felt like they would be there for showy off, for like show sake. And I wanted people that I knew one, would bring it and bring it straight away. We barely even needed to do another take. I had to have that first. I had to have people that have been in my life for, God, 25 years in the form of Scott Baker and Patrick Davy, the Fabulous Lounge Swingers. I knew I wanted the cast of Ted Lasso and I could have only dreamt that so many of them were like, hell yeah, we are in. And then the other artists, I have Leslie Odom Jr. Luke Evans, Sam Ryder. They are all people that I am massive fans of.

And people like Luke Evans, who I’ve known from theater since we were about 20 years old. And I think that you feel that. You feel that there is nothing inauthentic. There is nothing that’s like here today, gone tomorrow just for the sake of the cameras. Leslie Odom Jr, I told him, was very much there because when I asked my, at the time, eight-year-old daughter who she would like me to sing with, the was the first thing that came out of her mouth was just like, “Mommy, please, please let it be Leslie Odom Jr.” So, all of the people that I had, they needed to be there with me. And I was just so thrilled that they could all converge on a very hot, sweaty 27^th of May in London.

Q) Many of your “Ted Lasso” co-stars are in this special, and they’re not just sitting idly by, they’re singing, dancing, flying and more..

A) [laughs] Flying

Q) How did they react when you first approached them and told them what you wanted to do?

A) There literally was not one of them that went, “Oh, I’m not.” They were all just like, “Absolutely, when are we doing it? Oh God. Oh God, what are you gonna ask me to dance? Are you gonna ask me to sing?” And I was like, “Hold, hold. Hold on, hold on.” Everyone was so keen outta the gate. And Nick Mohammed, when you’re mentioning the flying, I said to Nick, “Would you come and do this for me? Would do this for me?” “Absolutely. What are we doing?” And I said, “Well, we’ve got this idea that, you know, you would be trying to distract everyone so much that eventually we put a hook on your back and like have you like flying out into the fly floor.” And he went, “Yeah, and I should stay there for the entire performance just with my legs dangling.” And I thought, oh, you are so up for it. It’s just great. [laugh]

Q) The dresses were absolutely gorgeous.

A) Chef’s kiss.

Q) Can you talk about that [laugh], you know, and the rehearsal and all that aspect?

A) Well, this is what I mean about having a team around you. My beloved stylist, James Yardley, he and I do everything together. It is a completely collaborative effort and he knows that I’m all about tone. The right tone for the right thing. And so it was obvious for us that we wanted to have a British designer. So, there is no one that makes a corset like Suzanne Neville. James and I went to Suzanne and said, we want to have these beautiful outfits that are timeless, first. You wouldn’t say they’re necessarily, you know, like 1930s or 1950s or now. They’re just completely timeless. I don’t want to look overtly like with bows and all the rest of it, Christmassy. And the collaborative effort of myself and James and Suzanne, I couldn’t be happier with it.

Honestly, every single element that I have from the set design by Misty Buckley, the lighting designer, Al Gorton, Hamish Hamilton, directing it. With that group of people around you and my manager floating around on top of it all overseeing it, and then the broader umbrella of Apple TV, I was really gonna have to bring it to come up to that creative team’s level. And thankfully I think it all exploded and then some.

Q) Aside from all the glitz, the parties and the goodies, what does Christmas mean to you?

A) Well, it means just that to me. I’m running around like a lunatic most of the time. This is why I wanted Scott Baker and Patrick Davey, my two great pals, the Fabulous Lounge Swingers in the show. People like them are Christmas to me. Them, they are my daughter’s godfathers. I want to have people around me that have been there for me all my life and they are two of them. People that I can be low key with and just eat and drink and chill out, hunker down. And I’m not a materialistic kind of girl. So that’s all. Happiness, health, and lots of lovely booze. [laugh]

Q) Without spoiling too much, what was your favorite moment or song from this special?

A) Probably my favorite moment was singing, “O Holy Night” to my mom and to my daughter. The unbelievable timing of the fact that my daughter was eight when we shot this and she was sitting in the box where I sat from the age of eight is kind of weird that she was eight sitting there and observing with her little spirit and her little heart, seeing her mommy standing there when I had sat there and seen my mommy. And then my mom is sitting at the back of the stalls. To have my mom there at all when I didn’t even know she was gonna make it, she’s heavily inflicted with Parkinson’s disease, bless her. And it was a big deal for me to get her there in her wheelchair. And my father who had gone through quintuple heart surgery while I was shooting the third season of “Ted” Lasso, to have them both there and to have my daughter, if I never did anything again, this special would be my greatest achievement.

Q) The special is such a classic Christmas feel that will take people back. What is your longest running holiday tradition or memory that it is that same feeling personally?

Q)It’s always in a world of music, really. I spent 22 years in theater, whether it’s here in New York or in the West End. And, you know, theater people, we are workhorses. So, you never have any time off at Christmas, you do a gazillion shows as if eight shows a week wasn’t enough, you end up doing 10 or 12. So that day of switching off on Christmas Day, I mean theater people will tell you, most of us spend it completely comatose ’cause you’re so tired. But having that switch off is so beautiful. And then going back in on Boxing Day, as we call it, Boxing Day, I don’t know what Americans call it. The day after Christmas Day and being back with your other family, theater family, that’s what I love. I love the fact that I have two families in my life and I was so desperate to do this show in a theater to show that.

Q) What other holiday specials served as an inspiration for “Home for Christmas” and or personal holiday traditions?

A) It was more pitching it in a way that I think perhaps other specials haven’t touched on as much lately. My main pitch in terms of tone was somewhere between Dean Martin and Carol Burnett. That style of, you know, having people over for the holidays, having people dropping in, in their finery. I mean, I feel like it’s a bygone era with people in beautiful dinner jackets and beautiful dresses and, you know, I was so keen for the band to be in their tuxes and my backing vocalists. Even one of the backing vocalists, Haley, said to me, “What are we gonna wear?” And I went, “I want you to feel a million dollars.” And that is it. I want everyone to come and be joyful. Love the music. Hear that big band strike up. It’s all about the gloss and people having a little bit of kind of an excuse to feel their best selves. So I love the fact that Misty Buckley created such a beautiful opulent set. And it leaning into that old school style when everyone was just done up to the nines, just gorgeous.

Q) What are your favorite Christmas traditions and what is your best moment on Christmas Day?

A) My best moment for sure is definitely still convincing my daughter that Father Christmas is a hundred percent real. I had a moment with her the other day. She came back and said, “Henry and Sonny at school say that Father Christmas doesn’t exist.” And I said, “Well, hold on a minute. You tell them how is it you had Christmas presents on Christmas Day when your mommy had COVID two Christmas days in a row? Hmm? Father Christmas came down the fireplace and he left you presents ’cause how could I do it?” And her little eyes widened and lit up and went, “I’m gonna tell them that. Yes. There’s no way you could’ve got presents in the house.” And I thought, “Oh, the joy of delivery.”

Q) What was your favorite part about the “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” scene on “Ted Lasso?” And did you share any holiday traditions with the cast?

A) I love that song. I was the one that suggested it. So, I was just grateful that Jason Sudeikis was like, “Yeah, if you are happy with that one.” I was like, “I just think it’s a great song.” The thing that wasn’t great that day was it was not warm and I was a bit like, “Oh, we are actually just doing this live. I’m not gonna go into a studio afterwards and re-record it and make it sound pretty.” They were like, “No. You are all right. You’ve been singing live all your life.” And I was like, “Oh God, why did I tell them that?” [laugh]

Q) Rebecca is the heart of “Ted Lasso.” What’s your favorite quality about your character on the series and when did producers writing your natural singing talent to the characters art?

A) The heart of Rebecca is something that I miss on a daily basis. I miss that girl like an old pal that I don’t see anymore. I love the fact that she’s trying. She’s trying. She’s trying all the time. Like, so we don’t know the amount of things that people are trying to get through on a daily basis. And that was what I would always go back to, the root of Rebecca is trying to claw her way back, always. So, I do miss her terribly. The singing on Ted Lasso is a hundred percent thanks to Mr. Sudeikis. Although I will say that him, Brendan Hunt, Brett Goldstein, they are all big musical theater nerds, far more than I am. So, they would come up with songs and I would just be like, guys, I don’t know the words to that. And they would look at me horrified and clutch their pearls because they just love musical theater. Jason grew up going to the theater in Kansas with his mom. So, I think when I rocked up, he was just like, “Guys, we’ve got this person that’s got all this wealth of experience. We’re having her singing.” And I remember Jason saying to me, “So you are gonna be singing this?” And I was like, “Right. Can I just ask why is a football club owner singing?” And he was like, “Yeah, we are not having this conversation. You’re just singing.” And I was like, “Okay. It was not a subject for debate.” And then when I’d said the next season, I was just like, “But I’m not singing this season. “Joe Kelly, one of the main writers was just like, “No, you’re singing twice.” And I laughed and he went, “No. No. You are singing twice.” [laugh]

Q) Hannah, this is coming out in a week. What do you hope people will take away from this special?

A) Joy. Joy. Old school love and joy, positivity because, you know, we are in such a mess of unkindness and selfishness at the moment in the world. And if I can provide, I know that there are far more important things in the world on a global scale, but everyone needs distraction. Everyone needs to smile. Everyone needs to shed a tear when they need to. And if I can provide that for 45 minutes as a little, you know, pill of happiness in a glass for them, then I hope that’s what this is.

 

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