Jason Sudeikis reunites Ted Lasso team — including Coach Beard & Rebecca — for KC fundraiser

To the chagrin of millions of fans, Jason Sudeikis’ multi-Emmy Award winning soccer series, “Ted Lasso,” is over. But some on the team are meeting again in Kansas City.

On Saturday night, Sudeikis’ who played Ted, actor Brendan Hunt who played Coach Beard, and this year for the first time, AFC Richmond’s owner Rebecca Welton — played by British actress and powerhouse singer Hannah Waddingham — will be together again at the Uptown Theater for an already sold out fundraiser known as Thundergong! (exclamation in the name).

Add to that mix actor and event alum Sam Richardson, best known for his role on the HBO political comedy “Veep,” but unforgettable to Lasso fans as the charming, yet hilariously volatile, Edwin Akufo, a tech billionaire from Ghana with premier football league ambitions.

Thundergong!, which has raised some $2.1 million in the last six years, is a raucous music-packed, comedy and variety show created and hosted by Sudeikis, a native of Overland Park, to benefit the Steps of Faith Foundation. The foundation, led by Sudeikis’ friend, Billy Brimblecom as chief executive officer, raises money to help provide prosthetics to amputees in financial need. Brimblecom, a drummer, is an amputee who lost his left leg to Ewing Sarcoma in 2005.

Sudeikis, who on Friday at 10 a.m. took questions with Brimblecom at the Uptown, talked about the importance of the nonprofit in bringing prosthetics to people with no health insurance or whose insurance does not sufficiently cover prosthetics.

“My brother and I here get to come together and make people laugh,” Brimblecom said, “and make some music to raise a lot of money to help a lot of people that need it.”

Sudeikis also cheered on Waddingham as an addition to the night.

“I would say, besides (comedian) Fred Armisen, who couldn’t be here this year, she’s the one person who overlaps as being a comedian, but then also is an equally gifted singer,” he said. “So we’re all very excited about that, especially the band because, you know, they don’t have to cover her mistakes like they do for myself and the other comedians.”

Sudeikis said that Waddingham has never been to Kansas City, but it took little to convince her to be part of the event.

“I texted her and she said was like, ‘Yes,’” Sudeikis said, adding that Waddington had, in some ways, already become familiar with Kansas City through the Ted Lasso scripts. “She’s met my family. She’s met my folks. She’s met other people from Kansas City. I mean, the good luck I have of the people I was born into, the family I didn’t choose and the family I have chosen., that’s enough of an advertisement for this town.”

Among other performers being featured this year are musician Kevin Morby of Kansas City, singer/songwriter Nathaniel Rateliff and Sudeikis friend and “Saturday Night Live” alum actor Will Forte.

Last year, Thundergong! raised $750,000. In 2022, Brendan Hunt, the Emmy-winning co-creator of “Ted Lasso,” took to the stage often, but a highlight was him as character Coach Beard singing Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” while Hula-Hooping.

Brothers Justin and Dan Hawkins, of the English rock act “The Darkness,” played tunes including a cover of Queen and David Bowie’s “Under Pressure.” Justin Hawkins, in a silver jumpsuit, belted a rendition of his group’s signature single, “I Believe in a Thing Called Love.” Wynonna Judd, a Thundergong! veteran, turned rock diva on Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What Love Is.”

With Forte, Sudeikis brought back a Weekend Update bit in which they play the “Bon Jovi opposite band” Jon Bovi.

The show Saturday beings at 7:30 p.m.

This story includes previous reporting by Star contributor Jon Niccum.