If you’re ready to get into the holiday spirit, then let actress and singer Hannah Waddingham do the work. Best known as Rebecca Welton on the hit Apple TV+ show, Ted Lasso, Waddingham has also had a storied career in musical theater. From starring roles in Spamalot to originating the role of Christine Warner in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Ben Elton’s The Beautiful Game, Waddingham built a foundation on Broadway and the West End in her native London before achieving her screen breakthrough with appearances on such shows as Game of Thrones and winning an Emmy Award for her work on Ted Lasso.
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She’s now putting her voice on full display with her new Apple TV+ Christmas special, Hannah Waddingham: Home For Christmas, filmed at the London Coliseum. The 45-minute show, complete with such classics as “The Man With the Bag,” “O Holy Night,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” and more, proves her voice is incredible and on par with some of the greats. Fans of Kelly Clarkson and Celine Dion will likely be enamored by Waddingham’s jaw-dropping voice. Home For Christmas isn’t simply a Christmas concert, but a full-on musical theatre production complete with fun and festive choreography, flashy costumes, and Waddingham’s knockout voice.
Fans of Ted Lasso will also be pleasantly surprised, as many of her castmates make cameos including Phil Dunster, Brett Goldstein, Nick Mohammed, Brendan Hunt, James Lance, Billy Harris, Kola Bokinni, and many more. Mohammed, Hunt, Lance, Harris, and Bokinni show up as her backup dancers on “Man With the Bag,” hamming it up all over the stage and ending with Shelley dangling from the ceiling with a Santa bag in hand. This leads to her soulful performance with Leslie Odom Jr. on “Please Come Home For Christmas.” Their voices blend mellifluously, making for one of the many spectacular collaborations throughout the special. “That was Christmas smooth right there,” Waddingham accurately reviewed.
But she truly captured the spirit of the show when she shared that her mother Melodie Kelly was a mezzo singer in the English National Opera chorus for 30 years and was now watching her daughter perform on the same stage. “This place was our home,” she remarked of the Coliseum, gesturing to where she used to sit in a small box watching her mother perform from the age of 8. “Tonight, my daughter, who’s 8, is sitting in the very same little box, so this song is for you my little girly and your momma.”
Waddingham then launched into a beautiful rendition of “O Holy Night,” which easily made for one of the top vocal sets of the night—the grand performance naturally showing off the range of her vocal abilites. The performance was made even more special by the backing she received from the English National Opera. A rocking rendition of Chuck Berry’s “Run Rudolph Run,” with Sam Ryder and several appearances by the London Gay Men’s Chorus, who narrated in-between moments like when Waddingham went backstage for a costume change, supported the singer’s claim, “I’m feeling quite Christmas-y, are you?”
The vibe continued with a special appearance by Dunster, who joined Waddingham and two of her longtime friends, Scott Baker and Pat Davey—known as the Fabulous Lounge Swingers—on a jazzy rendition of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Waddingham takes a back seat to allow her duet partners to take center stage, with Dunster showing off his surprisingly good voice in one of the show’s many lively moments. When Waddingham heads backstage for another costume change, she’s greeted by Goldstein, whose soaking in an inflatable hot tub in her dressing room with some words of wisdom to ease her worries. “You’re not gonna melt their faces, you’re just gonna melt their hearts,” Goldstein advised. “You’ve got the voice of an angel and you’re the world’s greatest entertainer.”
She proved this statement to be true when she returned to the gorgeous stage for a lovely cover of “Winter Wonderland” with actor Luke Evans. “This is a dream I genuinely never imagined would come true,” Waddingham professed to the packed house, getting choked up in the process. “To be home here with all of you, every single person that I love in life, thank you so much for sharing this with me. It’s just been incredible.”
The special comes to a charming close with a festive cover of “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” complete with dancers and soaring harmonies from the London’s Gay Men Chorus. All of the night’s cast members come out to sing in the finale as snow falls down upon them, ending in a cheerful group hug. Hannah Waddingham: Home For Christmas is bound to get you in the holiday spirit, and is definitely worth a watch this holiday season. The show is streaming now on Apple TV+.
Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images
