As Hannah Waddingham’s glitzy, musical show lights up homes and gets everyone in the mood for Christmas, we discover the behind-the-scenes fun.
If you were looking for something to get you in the Christmas spirit, look no further.
Hannah Waddingham’s Home For Christmas, an all-singing, all-dancing, high-octane special on Apple TV+ has all the festive ingredients you could ask for.
Sparkles, numerous dazzling outfit changes, an 18-piece band, glittering Christmas trees, wide smiles, nostalgic teary-eyed moments, comedic skits and countless festive musical numbers.
There are even cameos from Waddingham’s Ted Lasso co-stars.
Best known as a West End star in musicals including The Wizard Of Oz and for her Emmy-winning stint in Ted Lasso, Waddingham’s latest endeavour sees her front a dazzling Christmas special at the Coliseum theatre in London.
The location holds particular significance for Waddingham: many a childhood evening was spent in one of the boxes, bewitched as her mother, Melodie Kelly, a mezzo soprano in the English National Opera, performed on stage.
Joining Waddingham in this extravaganza are the likes of Hamilton’s Leslie Odom Jr, British singer Sam Ryder, Beauty And The Beast’s Luke Evans, the English National Opera, London Gay Men’s Chorus and The Fabulous Lounge Swingers.
We sat down with Waddingham, 49, to talk glitz, glam, outfits and performing alongside her special guests.
FIRSTLY, HOW WAS PERFORMING AT THIS FESTIVE SPECIAL? WHAT DID YOU LOVE ABOUT IT?
It was amazing. I was expecting it to be really exhausting but it just turned out to be completely thrilling, even though it was hours and hours long to film.
I hadn’t prepared myself for the moment when we weren’t on camera, having to sit back and talk to my director, Hamish Hamilton, in my ear and having to kind of hold the audience – that was actually the most tiring part of it, just trying to keep the energy in the room up. But I absolutely loved it.
THERE ARE SO MANY SPECIAL GUESTS, NOT LEAST YOUR TED LASSO CO-STARS. HOW WAS IT HAVING SO MANY LOVED ONES THERE WITH YOU?
Well, I found it a bit overwhelming really that so many of my Ted Lasso pals said ‘yes’. I thought maybe one or two would. But to literally have an embarrassment of riches from AFC Richmond was incredible and they tip it into something quite extraordinary.
TELL ME ABOUT YOUR DUETS. DID YOU HAVE A PARTICULAR FAVOURITE?
No, genuinely not – that’s why I chose who I chose. They all have their gifts. They all have their magic. And every single person brought it.
WHAT WAS THE REHEARSAL PROCESS FOR THOSE PERFORMANCES LIKE?
It was brief. Particularly people like Leslie Odom Jr, you know, he’s a busy man. He flew in, his flight was delayed. We literally sang the night he arrived. We went through it once and then we went through it again around the piano, and then the next day we did it. Just insane!
But musicians globally have a shorthand. So once it was myself and David Tench, my musical supervisor, and whomever of my guests, we literally went, ‘Right, shall we do it? Are you happy with that? What are we doing there? How do we get into that? What should we do there? Should we slightly change the harmony?’ And we feed off each other. It’s a real tribe.
WHAT WERE THE KEY ELEMENTS IN THE SHOW THAT MADE IT FEEL REALLY FESTIVE FOR YOU?
I think I wanted to create that kind of thing of everybody coming round to our house – like coming round for a Christmas party. I wanted people to feel like they could kick off their shoes, even if they were in the auditorium that night.
And even if you look at things like my duet with The Fabulous Lounge Swingers and Phil Dunster, we purposely put in that concept of Phil being in the auditorium and us being around the piano and that kind of ramshackle feeling, people thinking it was just discovered on route.
Even the cameos, the inserts that we put in there, I wanted people to be able to see everything – that kind of 360 of the whole venue, the backstage, on stage… all of it.
YOUR OUTFITS WERE INCREDIBLE! HOW DID YOU FIND WEARING THEM? DID YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE?
Well, we made them from scratch. They were very, very carefully created. Myself and James Yardley, my stylist, sat down together months and months ago and decided that we wanted to create as much of an emotional arc with the clothes as with the music.
So that first gold dress: I wanted it to be sparkly, I wanted it to be festive but not a punch in the eye in terms of being overtly Christmassy per se. And then I wanted it to be something that wouldn’t be distracting and would look very elegant and simple to go into that number that I dedicate to my mum and my daughter.
And then I wanted the second outfit to be more playful for my song with Sam Ryder: a bit more of a rock chick with a miniskirt but still the train to add the drama of theatre. And then of course, the last outfit, we needed something that was romantic and old school, like the time of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly.
