Ted Lasso stars Hannah Waddingham and Jason Sudeikis delivered a surprise musical duet for the charity event Thundergong! The event, raising money for amputees on behalf of the Steps for Faith Foundation, took place at Kansas City’s Uptown Theatre on 11th November 2023. Initially, Sudeikis, 48, took to the stage with the 53-year-old comedian and actor Will Forte, who starred on Saturday Night Live for eight years, as well as providing voices for films such as Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.
Gazing into his friend’s eyes, Sudeikis told Forte affectionately, “There’s nobody I would rather sing this song with.” The backing band, Summer Breeze, started up the first few bars of the power ballad “Shallow”, which drew cries of excitement from the audience. “Shallow” was famously performed by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper for the soundtrack of the 2018 film A Star Is Born, and gained – among many other accolades – an Academy Award for Best Original Song.
Sudeikis, who also starred in We’re the Millers and Horrible Bosses, sang the first part of the song, as originally done by Cooper. In the instrumental break before Forte’s part, the two comedians pushed each other affectionately. Then the moment came for Forte to sing the Lady Gaga part, which he began in earnest. This was when the surprise was revealed to the audience. To Forte’s feigned shock, he found that he wasn’t singing alone.
From behind him, a female voice was also delivering the part he had planned, stopping him in his tracks. He turned around to see Waddington striding onto the stage. This brought huge cheers of excitement from the crowd as they realised they were about the witness a Ted Lasso duet. Waddington, 49, from London, also starred in Game of Thrones and Sex Education. To show that she had taken his place, Waddington gave Forte a shove to the face before taking centre stage.
Hilariously, Forte could then be seen behind her pretending to complain to Sudeikis about having his place taken. Also pretending to be surprised by this turn of events, Sudeikis tried to appease his friend.
Then, as Waddington launched wonderfully into the powerful climax of the song, Sudeikis made a show of realising that he was onto a much better singing partner, and pushed Forte off the stage. The co-stars then sang together for the end of the song, before embracing in a long hug. It was a spectacular show of talent in both comedy and music, made even better for helping to raise money for charity.