Fans of American TV series ‘Glee’ went on a trip down nostalgia lane over the weekend when alums Darren Criss and Chris Colfer performed together for the first time in over a decade.
Their much-awaited reunion took place at Criss’ concert debut at London’s Royal Albert Hall on October 18, with Colfer among a star-studded lineup of surprise guests.
But first, a little background
Colfer played the role of Kurt Hummel in ‘Glee’, and was later joined in the second season by Criss as Blaine Anderson, who became Kurt’s boyfriend and, in the season finale (spoiler alert!), his husband.
Together, the two — famously known as ‘Klaine’ — became fan favorites and made history as one of the few modern LGBTQ+ representations on television in the early 2010s.
During Glee’s seven-season run, Klaine did several memorable duets, including ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’, from the season two episode ‘A Very Glee Christmas’.
At the time, the song peaked at No.57 on the Billboard Hot 100.
‘It’s been a while!’
Over 10 years later, Klaine returned to the stage to sing their iconic duet once more.
Before Colfer made an appearance, however, Criss teased the audience by trying to sing the song all by himself.
“It’s not supposed to be like that, but I’ve managed to pull off so many things,” said the award-winning performer.
A few verses later, Colfer joined him onstage to the deafening cheers of everyone inside the concert hall.
“It’s been a while!” Criss said in greeting to his former co-star. It definitely has been a while, as the last Klaine duet was in the show’s season finale in 2015, according to Billboard.
But as the pair performed again, it seemed no time had passed.
One fan online even posted on social media platform X that the spirits of Kurt and Blaine “possessed” them for a few minutes, attaching a clip from the performance that will surely give any ‘Glee’ and ‘Klaine’ fans a sense of deja vu.
Other surprise guests
Since wrapping up his time in Glee, Criss went on to become an established name in Hollywood and on Broadway.
He has won an Emmy and Golden Globe for his role in ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story’, and a Tony for ‘Maybe Happy Ending’.
His achievements as an actor and performer were evident in his other surprise guests on Sunday, which included Alan Cumming, Gaten Matarazzo, Sarah Hyland, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Alex Newell, Jak Malone, Natasha Hodgson, and Andrew Barth Feldman.
Criss ended the night with two of his famous solos from ‘Glee’: Keane’s ‘Somewhere Only We Know’ and Katy Perry’s ‘Teenage Dream’.
A ‘Glee’ reboot?
While Criss and Colfer made no mention of working together again in a new project, ‘Glee’ creator Ryan Murphy told Variety last month that he and his co-creators Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan had written a script.
“I’ve been in touch with around 10 of the original cast members,” said Murphy. “It’s very sweet, and they all had a lot of questions, but they all were very enthusiastic about the idea.”
‘Glee’ also starred Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Naya Rivera, Dianna Agron, Mark Salling, Jane Lynch, Matthew Morrison, Heather Morris, Amber Riley, and more.
Nobody has read the script yet, however, according to Murphy.
“So I don’t know, we’ll see. I vowed to myself that I wanted to write a couple of them to see what people think, particularly the cast, ’cause we were very close when we were making it,” he added.
But reboot or no reboot, it is safe to say that the new Klaine duet should be enough to tide fans over until any future Glee-unions.
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