Jane Lynch,
Unwrapped
Emmy-winning actor Jane Lynch hits all the bright notes in A Swingin’ Little Christmas at The Plaza Theatre.
Story by Derrik J. Lang
Photography by Andrew Eccles
Styling by Brian Primeaux
Hair and makeup by Jen Martens
Production by Emily Chavous Foster
Jane Lynch looks as cozy as Christmas morning on the patio of a midcentury home at Thunderbird Estates in Rancho Mirage. Wrapped in a cardigan and sipping a breve latte, she watches a group of golfers play through the 13th hole. The sunshine is a welcome break from the coastal fog of Montecito, where she lives with her wife, Jennifer Cheyne, and rescue dogs, a pair of senior cocker spaniels named Suzy and Charles.
The Central Coast may be home, but the Coachella Valley has long been a cherished retreat. “I love Palm Springs,” she says, recalling lazy afternoons by the pool and strolls down Palm Canyon Drive. She comes to recharge and thaw out in the warm desert air. Lynch often stays with her friend and business manager, John McIlwee, and his husband, Bill Damaschke — serial restorers of architecturally significant homes, including this one, designed by William Cody, and the President Gerald and Betty Ford Estate down the road.
She’s in town only briefly for this photo shoot but already planning her next visit, at the tail end of her 10th annual Swingin’ Little Christmas tour. This December, Lynch will be among the first performers to take the stage at the newly restored Plaza Theatre, joined by her merry band of co-conspirators: Kate Flannery (Meredith on The Office), Tim Davis (vocal arranger for Glee), and their band, the Tony Guerrero Quintet. The group launched their holiday tour in 2016 alongside an album of the same name featuring classics like “Jingle Bells,” “Good King Wenceslas,” and “Silent Night.”
It’s a joyful romp through the holiday music they grew up with. “Christmas was always very magical to me,” says Lynch, 65, who was raised in a suburb on the South Side of Chicago. She refers to Chicago as a “Christmas City” — not only for the elaborate window displays at the former Marshall Field’s but also for the stream of beloved holiday movies that still loops on the local television station, WGN, every December.
Jane Lynch wears a Trina Turk blouse and slacks, Atelier Sabine Luise scarf, and Brandon Boswell Diamonds leopard brooch.
For Lynch, the holidays have the ring of the compilation albums released by Firestone in the 1960s and ’70s, featuring the likes of Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Rosemary Clooney — all of whom performed at The Plaza Theatre during its heyday.
“Any time I hear anything from those albums,” Lynch says, “Christmas comes flying right back to me.”
video by james aitken
Before Glee made Jan Lynch a household name as the deliciously snide coach Sue Sylvester, she had already carved out a singular career in comedy, theater, and film. She came up through Chicago’s storied improv world, performing with The Second City, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and the Annoyance Theatre. In the late ’90s, Lynch landed a Frosted Flakes commercial directed by Christopher Guest and cemented her place in Guest’s world of mockumentary, appearing in the early aughts in Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, and For Your Consideration.
She has remained in constant view, with roles in everything from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel to Only Murders in the Building. She performed on Broadway in 2013 and 2022, and now hosts The Weakest Link on Fox. The latest iteration, Celebrity Weakest Link, wraps its first season this month and is available to stream on Hulu. Her performances have earned her five Primetime Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards — recognition, she admits, she never actually set out to achieve.
“I’ve never allowed myself to have goals,” she says.
Growing up, Lynch didn’t envision a future as a famous actress. “I loved The Carol Burnett Show, but I never watched it and thought that’s what I wanted to be when I grew up,” she says. “It felt like such a fantasy that it could be a profession for me.”
Still, the stage summoned her. During her sophomore year at Illinois State University, she didn’t tell her parents when she switched her major to theater. She focused on the present: what play to audition for, whether to do summer stock, how to pay the bills. The approach allowed her to embrace the unexpected. “There’s no trajectory,” claims Lynch, whose earliest film roles include a department store executive in 1988’s Vice Versa and a cunning pathologist in 1993’s The Fugitive opposite Harrison Ford. “There’s no rhyme or reason why I get what I get,” she says. “It just happens.”
Veronica Beard vest and Ramy Brook knit polo, Saks Fifth Avenue. Trina Turk pants.
Atelier Sabine Luise blouse and scarf. Loulou de Saison pants, The Webster Palm Springs. Antique rings, Mary Ann-tiques. Tom Ford sunglasses.
“There’s an ease with Jane that’s so sweet, funny, and casually brilliant,” affirms John Hoffman, the creator and executive producer of Only Murders in the Building (himself a part-time Palm Springs resident). Hoffman always envisioned Lynch as Sazz Pataki, the stunt double and confidante of Steve Martin’s character, Brazzos.
“That’s basically the dream of Jane Lynch all in one basket,” he says. She received a 2022 Emmy nod for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for the performance.
Lynch’s focus on musical theater and cabaret began relatively recently in life. After her Broadway debut as the brash Miss Hannigan in a 2013 revival of Annie, a contact at the famed New York City cabaret 54 Below offered her a performing slot.
“They said, ‘Do you have a cabaret show?’ ” she recalls. “I said, ‘No, but I’ll get one.’ ”
LBLC the Label faux wool moto jacket.
The Location:
SAND DUNE HOUSE
The Sand Dune House, a 1963 William Cody home neighboring the President Gerald and Betty Ford Estate at Thunderbird Estates in Rancho Mirage, has been carefully restored by homeowners John McIlwee and Bill Damaschke, with interiors by Darren Brown and landscape design by Studio John Sharp.
Lynch has always let instinct lead. If it makes her laugh, she’s in.
Last year, she wrapped a two-year stint as the celebrity mayor of Funner, California. The Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians renamed the Valley Center area surrounding Harrah’s Resort Southern California in 2016 and began appointing funny folks as its honorary “mayors.” David Hasselhoff and Rob Riggle held the role before Lynch, who appeared in silly commercials for the casino resort during her tenure. “My political aspirations stopped there,” notes Lynch, who passed mayoral duties on to her Only Murders co-star Martin Short in 2024. “I can’t top that.”
Lynch’s desire to explore new experiences extends beyond the conventional boundaries of Hollywood. She and Cheyne are repeat attendees of a summer program hosted through Cheyne’s alma mater, Berkeley, at Merton College at the University of Oxford in England. During the three-week program, they stay in the 13th-century dorm and eat in what Lynch describes as the “Harry Potter dining room.” This summer, Lynch studied Shakespeare, diving into deep-cut works like Henry IV, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and The Winter’s Tale. Cheyne focused on the history of Georgian country homes. “Everything there is old — even older than us,” Lynch jokes.
“It’s our second year doing it. It’s really like going to Hogwarts. We love it so much.”
Monica Mahoney dress.
When Lynch and Co. land in Palm Springs to play The Plaza Theatre on Dec. 15, they’ll be nearing the end of their 10th annual holiday tour. “So we should be pretty good by then,” Lynch deadpans. “We should have the kinks worked out.”
“I am so excited to be back in Palm Springs,” her co-star, Flannery, says. “It’s been too long.”
Lynch and Flannery have been singing together for decades, going back to their Chicago theater days. “The very first time I went to Second City, I saw Jane Lynch understudy for actress Bonnie Hunt,” she recalls. “Less than two years later, I was Jane’s understudy.”
When they discovered they both had “Irish Catholic fathers who loved to sing and harmonize,” Lynch says, they became fast friends. A shared love of the smooth, sophisticated sounds of midcentury crooners sealed their performing partnership
“I love to sing,” Lynch says. “But I never wanted to sing alone. I’m not a solo singer. I’m a part singer — I like to sing harmonies and, every once in a while, take the lead.”
Like many aspects of Lynch’s life, the idea for a Christmas album was born of spontaneity. “I think we were in Connecticut, and our bandleader, Tony Guerrero, said, ‘What if we do a Christmas album?’ ” she says. “We found a bunch of Christmas songs in the public domain, and Tony arranged them. He’s a fabulous big-band arranger. It’s all a throwback to late-’50s and ’60s Christmas music but music we still listen to today.”
Her favorite moment in the Swingin’ Little Christmas show starts with a soft piano solo. “The First Noel” floats over the familiar chord progression of “Canon in D (Pachelbel’s Canon)” in three-part harmony. The notes fit together as if they were always meant to be one song.
“I love being one voice in a three-note chord,” she says. “We have this wonderful five-piece band, the Tony Guerrero Quintet, and they are masters at their craft.”
Of the annual tour, Lynch shares, “It’s my favorite part of the year.”
This isn’t her first time performing in the Coachella Valley. In 2019, Lynch and Flannery brought the cabaret show See Jane Sing to the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert. They’re particularly enthused to perform at The Plaza Theatre after its estimated $34 million refresh.
“Like many women in Hollywood, I’m guessing The Plaza had a little work done,” Flannery quips. “A little facelift never hurt anyone — it reminds me that everything old is new again. We need to keep these landmarks alive and well.”
The newly restored theater is the perfect backdrop for Lynch’s brand of holiday spirit. In a sense, she’s extending the legacy established at The Plaza Theatre by the likes of Crosby, Sinatra, and Clooney, whose voices once set the bar for the season in the desert.
Pucci silk pajama set, The Webster Palm Springs.
Atelier Sabine Luise blouse. Emerald and diamond earrings and necklace, Brandon Boswell Diamonds.
“They were all out here, and I feel that when I come to Palm Springs,” Lynch says. “If you like the music from the late ’50s, early ’60s — and I bet you do — join us.”
Beyond the stage, Lynch’s connection to the Coachella Valley extends to its classrooms. She co-founded the nonprofit Adopt the Arts with Rock & Roll Hall of Fame drummer Matt Sorum, a full-time Palm Springs resident, to preserve and promote music education in public schools. The nonprofit partners with campuses across Los Angeles and the desert — including Agua Caliente, Bubbling Wells, Della S. Lindley, Vista Del Monte, Cabot Yerxa, and Cathedral City elementary schools — to provide sustainable music programs that foster creativity and confidence in young students.
In March 2026, Lynch will return to The Plaza Theatre to host Adopt the Arts: The Sound & Vision Awards, honoring rock legends Paul Rodgers and Geezer Butler. Sorum will serve as musical director, leading an all-star band that includes Glenn Hughes, Lzzy Hale, Corey Taylor, and more. Proceeds support Adopt the Arts’ mission to keep music education alive for thousands of children in the Coachella Valley and beyond.