Jane Lynch will emcee this year’s free Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular at the Hatch Shell on Saturday, taking the stage as the Pops build toward the fireworks display that closes one of Boston’s biggest holiday traditions.
That makes Lynch the face of a show that reaches far beyond the Esplanade this year. Portions of the July Fourth broadcast will air on, with Anderson Cooper and Pamela Brown bringing viewers to the Esplanade, while the full event will also be shown locally on WHDH-TV Channel 7 and streamed on All Access. Megan Hilty, Lainey Wilson, Chance The Rapper and Trombone Shorty are also set to perform.
The booking fits Lynch’s long-running comfort with live events. She previously performed with Keith Lockhart and the Pops at Symphony Hall in 2019, and she said she was thrilled and very honored to get the call. For her, hosting is not a side duty but the point of the night: she said she loves hosting because it means making people feel comfortable, both in the audience and at home watching.
That emphasis on inclusion gives the celebration extra weight this year. The Pops are marking 250 years, and Lynch said the combination of Boston and the anniversary makes the night feel as American as it gets. She also framed the event as a celebration of the public itself, saying it is about the people and that they are going to show up and celebrate that. It is a patriotic show, but it arrives in a city and a country also buzzing with America’s 250th anniversary and World Cup fever, which gives the free concert a bigger cultural backdrop than fireworks alone.
The practical question now is how much of the night television viewers will actually see. The broadcast will split between local coverage and the national feed, with only portions of the show airing on while the live concert continues at the Hatch Shell and ends in fireworks. For Lynch, that leaves the same job in two places at once: keep the in-person crowd moving, and make sure the larger television audience feels invited into the room.
