It would be big news that Broadway and TV star Lauren Ambrose is coming to Needham but for one thing: She does it all the time. Decades ago, Ambrose, who will kick off the Great Hall Concert Series for 2026-27 on Sept. 19, married into one of Needham’s most civic-minded families: the Handels. Lauren, her husband, Sam Handel, and their two children are regularly in town to visit Moe and Bonnie, Sam’s parents. In conversation, Ambrose calls it home, meaning Sam’s family’s home.
“We live in a rural place (in western Mass.),” Ambrose said, “so when we’re home at Sam’s, we get to walk places. My daughter is very excited about the idea that one can walk to a Starbucks. She can’t believe it.”
Starbucks, food from Gianni’s, a shout-out to New Garden (“New Garden, awesome,” Ambrose said) — Ambrose and Handel know Needham. “We moved here when I was 10,” said Sam Handel, who has his own creative career as a writer and producer. He said the first thing that impressed him was Little League. “We paraded on the 4th of July, which I had never seen before.”
It’s all a break from Ambrose’s professional life, which has seen her star on Broadway as Eliza Doolittle in “My Fair Lady” (Tony nomination) and a television trajectory from a breakout young actress in “Six Feet Under” to the lead in the psychological horror series, “Servant.” Since 2023, she has been in another intense psychological series, “Yellowjackets,” on Showtime.
But it’s not psychological horror she will offer the Needham audience this month — it’s her extraordinary singing, a trained-but-approachable voice that made her a fitting heir to Julie Andrews. She may be one of the only Great Hall performers who has attended other Great Hall concerts — Moe, her father-in-law, is on the board.
The concert will be something new for Ambrose. “I don’t really do this,” she said. “I was in a band for a while singing gypsy jazz and I’ve sung on Broadway, but this is a different kind of thing for me. I probably would not have the ego required except for the fact that this is for Needham and for Bonnie and Moe.”
Was there arm-twisting involved? “There was a fairly firm twist for about 13 years,” she admitted. “But when it actually started to come together, Moe recused himself from the process.” She had long wanted to do it, she said, but she could never commit to a date because of looming professional obligations. “This time I’m just starting to rehearse a play (‘The Unbelievers,’ by Nick Payne), so I knew exactly where I would be and that I could get a day off to do the concert.” She and her Grammy nominated pianist, Matt Cusson, have been putting together the program.
“As an actor, there are so many things that almost happen, but you end up having to leave to go to a different job or whatever it is. So when something does come together, it’s often a miracle.”
As for fame, Ambrose said it’s all relative — or, in Needham, all relatives. On the streets of town, she said, many more people recognize and waylay her in-laws than their television-star family member. “Everybody knows Moe,” she said. “And I’ve been in the grocery store with Bonnie (a retired M.D. who had a local practice) where people chase her down to ask embarrassing medical questions or get medical advice in the produce aisle. So it’s no contest.”
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