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Drag fans like Martha Stewart more than Kris Jenner, Ryan Raftery’s tickets sales suggest
Who do drag fans get the biggest kick out of: Martha Stewart, Kris Jenner or Anna Wintour?
The domestic diva takes the prize, it seems.
Ryan Raftery has been performing his “Titans of Media Trilogy” at Joe’s Pub, featuring three separate musicals, each about one of the famous trio.
He told us there has been a noticeable difference in interest in the three women.
“Martha has sold the best. Kris has not been selling as well as the other two,” Raftery told Page Six hours before he performed the final show of his trilogy the famed Noho venue on Thursday night.
Stewart has sold out, while Wintour “has been damn near close to selling out,” but Jenner “is ok,” he told us. Raftery believes the reason the other two have been more successful than Jenner is because “they’re campier and funnier than Kris.” And the Kardashian brand “may be a little overexposed,” he added.
He’s been playing “Vogue” editor Wintour since 2014 and he created his Martha Stewart show in 2017, while Jenner first got the Raftery treatment last year before he started performing the shows together as part of a residency at Joe’s Pub.
Raftery’s shows has been a fan favorite among celeb fans such as Bernadette Peters, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Patricia Field. His recent residency has brought out Sandra Lee, Titus Burgess, and “Traitors” star Peppermint.
On Wednesday, Stewart’s designer pal, Michael Kors popped by with a gaggle of friends to check out his portrayal of the domestic diva. Restaurateur Max Tucci was also there, along with Raftery’s artist bestie Ashley Longshore.
“[Kors] said he knows all three of the women Ryan plays. He talked about cooking with Martha on her show, and making pineapple upside cake with her,” a source told Page Six of the backstage meeting between the performer at the design legend.
Mary Ellen Mathews, the official photographer of “Saturday Night Live” did an impromptu photoshoot with Kors and Raftery.
Meanwhile, Raftery told us he met Stewart when she attended Fern Mallis’s popular conversation series at the 92nd Street Y.
“Fern introduced us. She was very, very sweet. I didn’t [ask] Fern was going to ask her about my show!” Raftery said.
According to Raftery, Stewart told Mallis she was advised not to go because “they said [she] wouldn’t like it.”
Yet, several of her associates — including her hot gardener — have seen Raftery in action as Stewart. In fact, Raftery’s noticed his jokes “landing in a way they never landed before” at a past performance because “almost half of the audience was [from] Sequential Brands,” the company that once owned Stewart’s brands, Raftery said.
Still, he thinks it’s for the better that Stewart never showed up because “everyone would watch her and watch the show at the same time… it would be way too weird,” he said.
