If you find yourself wondering why that redhead singing into the mike at Joe’s Pub this weekend looks so familiar, no, your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you — it’s actress Lauren Ambrose.
The “Six Feet Under” actress and two-time Shakespeare in the Park alum is playing her first-ever show with her jazz band, the Leisure Class, tomorrow night. Ambrose says she got the idea for the concert when one of the band’s favorite venues, Club Helsinki in the Berkshires, closed recently. “I said, well, I’ve done Shakespeare in the Park, maybe we can play [at Joe’s Pub],” she recalls. “I’m kind of excited to stop playing just in broom closets in my house and play for folks and see how it feels.”
The show will incorporate a couple of original songs and rock ‘n’ roll covers that will be tweaked to fit the band’s style, which Ambrose describes as a “Dixieland kind of dirty sound” and is inspired by Louis Armstrong and Django Reinhardt.
While Ambrose has no immediate plans to pursue a musical career, she says she expects to play another show or make a record at some point.
“As an actor you inevitably have a lot of downtime,” she says. “You need to keep the creativity flowing.”
But does this foray into singing make her anxious?
“Oh, I’m terrified!” she says. “But I’m always nervous; I think it’s part of performing. It’s such a new thing. It’s supposed to be for fun but it is definitely out of my comfort zone.” When she’s acting on the stage, Ambrose says she quells her nervousness by getting really focused, doing a big warm-up and looking at her script and notes. But when it comes to singing, she takes a different approach. “I have a couple beers,” she laughs.