Anyone who was introduced to Darren Criss through his role on Glee was in for a special treat Sunday night (Oct. 18) at London’s Royal Albert Hall, where the Emmy- and Tony-winning actor reunited with co-star Chris Colfer to perform together for the first time in more than a decade.
Criss joined Glee during season 2 in 2010 to play Blaine Anderson, the lead singer of the Dalton Academy Warblers and love interest (and eventual first boyfriend) for Colfer’s Kurt Hummel. On Sunday, when Criss made his debut at the iconic venue with two back-to-back performances, Colfer was among an impressive lineup of surprise guests who hit the stage.
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But before Colfer arrived, Criss teased the crowd by attempting to sing one of Kurt and Blaine’s most memorable duets all by himself: “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” from the season 2 episode “A Very Glee Christmas,” which peaked at No. 57 on the Billboard Hot 100 back in 2010. “I’m gonna do my best to sing both parts,” he told the audience, launching into the impossible solo duet. A few lines in, though, the crowd started cheering when they saw Colfer emerge.
“Hey, Darren!” Colfer casually said, to which Criss responded: “It’s been awhile!” In fact, the pair hadn’t performed together in more than a decade, given Glee wrapped its seven-season run back in 2015.
“Do you know the words to this?” Criss prompted Colfer, who assured him: “I do.”
Watch the sweet reunion below:
In addition to the Colfer surprise, other surprise guests included Alan Cumming for ABBA’s “Does Your Mother Know”; Stranger Things star Gaten Matarazzo for “Lost Boys Life,” an original song Criss wrote and recorded with his late brother, Chuck Criss, for their band Computer Games; Sarah Hyland for “Suddenly Seymour” from Little Shop of Horrors; as well as her Modern Family co-star Jesse Tyler Ferguson for Adele’s “Someone Like You.”
Even before Criss was on Glee, he made a name for himself as a University of Michigan student by co-creating A Very Potter Musical, a Harry Potter-themed musical that went viral online. On Sunday night, he performed “Goin’ Back to Hogwarts” from the show joined by an ensemble of acclaimed stage performers, including Glee’s Alex Newell (Shucked, Once on This Island), Jak Malone (Operation Mincemeat), Natasha Hodgson (Operation Mincemeat) and Andrew Barth Feldman (Dear Evan Hansen, Little Shop of Horrors).
He returned to the Glee world one last time for Sunday’s shows by performing with a local youth choir for Keane’s “Somewhere Only We Know” and Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream,” two songs he famously covered on the Fox musical comedy, as the grand finale.
Since his time on Glee, Colfer has gone on to win an Emmy and Golden Globe for his role in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story as well as a Tony for Maybe Happy Ending.