The series finale of “Glee” aired Friday, and Jane Lynch (aka Sue Sylvester) is already well into her next career move — cabaret star. And her first post-“Glee” gig is her original song, dance and banter show, “See Jane Sing.”
“This cabaret is more of an outgrowth of my sketch comedy days, working with Second City and the Annoyance Theatre,” Lynch said, referring to the two Chicago troupes.
In the early 1990s, Lynch was one of the Annoyance actors who brought the group’s “Brady Brunch” re-enactments to Los Angeles, but she opted not to return to Chicago. Or to the stage.
“I started doing television and film,” said Lynch, who also performed with Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre. “I didn’t think I’d go back to theater; I just didn’t have the hankering for it.”
But then, for two months during her 2013 hiatus from “Glee,” Lynch traded her Sue Sylvester polyester tracksuits for the gaudy flowered frocks of Miss Hannigan in the Broadway revival of “Annie.”
“I had the best time, and I got the bite all over again, and I wanted to be onstage,” she said.
Lynch got the opportunity a year later, when the producers of New York’s famed 54 Below club called to offer her four nights. Did she have a cabaret show ready to go?
“I said, ‘I don’t have one, but I will get one,’ ” Lynch said.
Lucky for her, she had “Glee” colleague Matthew Morrison around for moral support and the backstage creatives from the show ready to arrange her music. She also recruited fellow Second City graduate Kate Flannery, best known as Meredith on “The Office,” to hit the road and sing along on several numbers, including a Borscht Belt jazz rendition of the “Fiddler on the Roof” ballad “Far From the Home I Love.” Other selections include Dave Frishberg’s “Slappin’ the Cakes on Me,” faux-folk tunes from the Christopher Guest movie “A Mighty Wind”.
To warm up for the spring tour, Lynch was grateful that Sue Sylvester finally got a few more chances to sing on “Glee.” She aced Judy Garland’s “The Trolley Song” from “Meet Me in St. Louis” with help from guest star Carol Burnett.
“See Jane Sing” has been booked at venues across the country, but unlike Sue Sylvester, Lynch expects to easily relinquish the running of her own show.
“I certainly wouldn’t mind doing another play, even a straight play,” she said.
“A musical, of course, would be wonderful, too. I’d love to go back to the theater for an appreciable amount of time.”
