Reviews

Ryan Raftery's Watch What Happens – Live on Stage!

Joe’s Pub hosts an imaginative take on the ”Real Housewives” empire wrought by television producer Andy Cohen.

Miranda Noelle Wilson, Ryan Raftery, Romelda Teron Benjamin, and Emily McNamara pose for an in-character selfie in Ryan Raftery's Watch What Happens – Live on Stage!, directed by Jay Turton, at Joe's Pub.
Miranda Noelle Wilson, Ryan Raftery, Romelda Teron Benjamin, and Emily McNamara pose for an in-character selfie in Ryan Raftery’s Watch What Happens – Live on Stage!, directed by Jay Turton, at Joe's Pub.
(© Brendan Burke)

The title of Ryan Raftery's latest show at Joe's Pub, Watch What Happens – Live on Stage!, suggests a parody version of Bravo's boozy late-night gabfest — something silly, fun, and ultimately unmemorable. What Raftery actually delivers is entirely unexpected and infinitely more delightful: Watch What Happens – Live on Stage is a Faustian epic of reality TV, an origin myth for the Real Housewives monster as told from the perspective of its Dr. Frankenstein, producer (and Watch What Happens Live host) Andy Cohen. In addition to writing the script and parody lyrics (the show draws music from pop and Broadway), Raftery plays Cohen with the kind of energetic commitment to character rarely seen on any stage, much less in cabaret.

Judging by the boldface names at the first performance, Raftery's animated performance style has garnered something of a following among media personalities: Gayle King and no fewer than two real housewives were in attendance to see Miranda Noelle Wilson deliver a stellar drag performance as CNN anchor Anderson Cooper.

Much of the plot hinges on Cohen's relationship with Cooper, which Raftery has described as "the most important love story of our time." If that is true, it is certainly an unrequited love (despite being very close friends with Cohen, Cooper has been romantically attached for years to French nightclub entrepreneur Benjamin Maisani). According to Raftery, the entire Real Housewives franchise is an elaborate scheme to win Cooper's affection.

In the play, Cooper is obsessed with celebrities, so Cohen decides to create some of his own, hoping that his love will finally notice him. Using Andy Warhol's factory as a model, Cohen assembles a group of "gorgeous, talentless women" for a new type of TV show, "like The Real World, but with pre-menopausal sociopaths."

At first, the plan seems to work: New Jersey housewife Teresa Giudice (a spot-on vocal impersonation by Emily McNamara) sweetly sings "Beauty and the Beast" as Cooper twirls Cohen into a warm embrace. "Off to the cupboard with you now, Milania," she says as she cradles her baby.

Later, when it becomes clear that Cooper has placed Cohen firmly in the friend zone, Atlanta housewife Nene Leakes (Romelda Teron Benjamin, with a voice and personality big enough to shake the heavens) conspires with Cohen to have Maisani deported. The song "Feed Me" from Little Shop of Horrors becomes "Fame Me," with the insatiable Leakes playing the role of Audrey II (she wants her own show in return for making a call to her friend at the INS).

Andy Cohen (Ryan Raftery) sings Sympathy for the Devil, flanked by housewives Kim Richards (Miranda Noelle Wilson), Nene Leakes (Romelda Teron Benjamin), and Teresa Giudice (Emily McNamara) in Ryan Raftery's Watch What Happens – Live on Stage!
Andy Cohen (Ryan Raftery) sings Sympathy for the Devil, flanked by housewives Kim Richards (Miranda Noelle Wilson), Nene Leakes (Romelda Teron Benjamin), and Teresa Giudice (Emily McNamara) in Ryan Raftery’s Watch What Happens – Live on Stage!
(© Daniel Reichard)

Reminiscent of a young Martin Short, the baby-faced Raftery proves ideally suited to play Cohen. His cartoonish facial expressions and impeccable comic timing regularly have the audience in stitches. With just a salt-and-pepper wig and toothy smile, he becomes the evil genius of reality TV: not an exact impersonation, but a portrayal so specific that one never questions it. Raftery's Cohen is a recognizably human (if socially awkward) man tirelessly driven by love — love of television and Anderson Cooper.

Director Jay Turton turns the event into something slightly grander than a typical concert production of a musical, with the performers using every corner of Joe's Pub to tell their story. A sexy six-man band accompanies the vocalists as they sing rewritten versions of songs by Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, and Meat Loaf. The whole thing leaves us in hysterics and wanting to see a fuller production.

Ryan Raftery's outsize imagination and comic instincts offer a breath of fresh air on the cabaret stage. We can't wait to watch what happens with this musical dynamo in the coming years.

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