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Countess Luann de Lesseps is one of the OG Real Housewives of New York City, and ever since she first appeared on TV screens in 2008, the drama hasn’t stopped. She was on the spinoffs The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip and Luann and Sonja: Welcome to Crappie Lake and is currently prepping for her Countess Cabaret Tour, which stops by City Winery Pittsburgh on November 3 for a 6 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. show.
de Lesseps will be performing her latest single and music video, “Marry F Kill,” and dishing on personal stories that she tells Pittsburgh City Paper “you won’t get to hear unless you come to the cabaret show.”
“It’s really pop culture meets cabaret meets comedy meets fashion show,” she adds. “I have so much fun with it because I create the show based on my personal stories.”
de Lesseps picks the songs that her fans are most familiar with, and many are what their mother was listening to when Luann first started out in 2008, so it’s like what she calls “a big sing-along.”
She gets into said songs by starting off with a personal anecdote. Also, she, of course, picks a killer dress to accompany the song.
As far as her dream musical collaborator, de Lesseps would love to get to know Miley Cyrus better. “I do cover her song ‘Flowers’ in my show,” she says.
The whole idea for de Lesseps’ show stemmed from a 2015 appearance for the nonprofit Broadway Cares. It was there she had the chance to sing with Natalie Cole. “That’s how I got to meet my musical director, and from there I started doing my own cabaret,” de Lesseps says. “When I got there the marquee read Liza Minnelli, Chita Rivera, and Lucie Arnaz — it was incredibly iconic and inspirational — what a night that was for me.”
Those who attend her show may not know what to expect, because on Housewives, viewers would only see the drama surrounding de Lesseps’ cabaret.
“Like when I go see my poster, which I’m very proud of,” she says, adding, “What do they want? They wanted me to bring them truffle fries, which don’t travel well.”
de Lesseps is referencing the 2019 episode of The Real Housewives of New York when, while on a trip to Miami, the women on the show sent de Lesseps out for truffle fries, but she got derailed checking out her cabaret poster at the Jackie Gleason Theater.
“Life is not a cabaret, but I guess for me it is,” de Lesseps says. “I’ve put in my blood, sweat, and tears into many, many seasons of Housewives.”
de Lesseps also has a dating show currently in the works, which she can’t say much about just yet, but did promise “plenty of drama.”
The show is currently being produced under the working title Love Hotel, and will star de Lesseps, Real Housewives of Orange County’s Shannon Storms Beador, and Real Housewives of Potomac’s Gizelle Bryant and Ashley Darby. Filming was in Cabo San Lucas in September and consisted of the women given a diverse dating pool. It will air on Peacock, which also is the home to Love Island (we recently spoke with last season’s Love Island contestant and Pittsburgh native Kaylor Martin).
Before getting into modeling, acting, becoming an author, a philanthropist, TV star, and cabaret singer, de Lesseps was a licensed nurse in New York and Connecticut, and still holds her license for those two states.
“Being a nurse is one of the most gratifying things I’ve ever done, and I have so much respect for nurses,” she says. During COVID, she took care of an elderly woman in her neighborhood.
“Being a nurse has helped me tremendously in terms of dealing with people, dealing with housewives, and I also grew up in a large family,” de Lesseps, who is one of six children, says. “I always say my big family prepared me for the housewives in a way, because I had to navigate a lot of people and get what I want.”
An All-New Countess Cabaret Marry F Kill. Sun., Nov. 3, 6 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. City Winery. 1627 Smallman St., Strip District. $85-135. citywinery.com
This article appears in Oct 23-29, 2024.
