This fall, “the Shakespeare of pop culture satire” (NYT), playwright and performer Ryan Raftery (Mother of the Year: The Kris Jenner Musical,
The Trial of Andy Warhol, The Rise and Fall and Rise of Martha Stewart) returns to Joe’s Pub with his latest creation, The Ballad of JonBenét Ramsey, a satire about our society’s insatiable obsession with true crime.
Opening September 12th, The Ballad of JonBenét Ramsey follows Jessica Feltcher, a lonely skincare marketing manager who turns her fixation on the infamous child beauty queen’s unsolved murder into a hit podcast—and slowly unravels in the process. As her fame grows, so does her detachment from reality in this high-camp, high-stakes musical featuring parody songs of classic tunes from Kiss, Lady GaGa, Kylie Minogue and more.
A hilariously unhinged look at justice, media, and the blurred line between fandom and fanaticism.
RYAN RAFTERY: THE BALLAD OF JONBENET RAMSEY opens Friday, September 12, and runs through Wednesday, September 17. Tickets and more details are available online, over the phone (212-967-7555) and in-person at The Public Theater’s box office (425 Lafayette, NYC).
“The idea came from an article that said many women fall asleep to true crime podcasts. There’s something strangely soothing about danger at a safe distance —it’s like a roller coaster: the thrill without the consequence,” said Raftery. “I became obsessed with why women, in particular, are drawn to these stories, and no case has lived in the public imagination quite like JonBenét Ramsey’s. It has everything — wealth, beauty, media frenzy, botched police work, and an ending we still don’t have. I wrote this show to explore that obsession, to poke fun at it, and to ask what happens when fascination turns into fixation — when the story you’re telling starts to unravel you.”
The stageplay and parody lyrics are written by Raftery, set to songs by artists as varied as Lady Gaga. Kylie Minogue, Kiss and Alan Menken. Story by Ryan Raftery & Jay Turton. Stage direction is by Jay Turton, musical direction by Brandon James Gwinn and wig design by Isaac Davidson.
Ryan Raftery has appeared on television in Ugly Betty, What I Like About You, Malcolm in the Middle and, most memorably, on Law and Order: SVU, where he warmed hearts all across America as Dennis Faber, the lovable Amish teenager with measles. He has written 10 shows, including the solo shows “Ryan Raftery & Friends: A Solo Act” and “Ryan Raftery’s It Gets Worse.” His celebrity bio-musicals based on the lives of Anna Wintour, Andy Cohen, Martha Stewart, Calvin Klein, Ivanka Trump, Andy Warhol and Kris Jenner have sold out from coast to coast and have garnered praise in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, People Magazine and many others.
TICKETS: ONLINE at joespub.com / PHONE, 10AM-7:00PM, DAILY 212-967-7555
IN PERSON The Public Theater Box Office, 425 Lafayette Street, NYC (Opens daily at
2PM)
NOTE There is a $12 food / two (2) drink minimum per person per show, unless
otherwise noted.
PRESS INQUIRIES Please contact (212) 539-8563.
JOE’S PUB, a program of the Public Theater, was named for Public Theater founder Joseph Papp. Since it opened in 1998, Joe’s Pub has played a vital role in The Public’s mission of supporting young artists while providing established artists with an intimate space to perform and develop new work. Joe’s Pub presents the best in live music and performance nightly, continuing its commitment to diversity, production values, community, and artistic freedom. The organization also offers opportunities like New York Voices, an artist commissioning program that helps musicians develop original live performance projects; Joe’s Pub Working Group, an artist development initiative; The Vanguard Award & Residency, a yearlong series that celebrates the career of a prolific and influential artist and has honored Nona Hendryx, Judy Collins, and Laurie Anderson; and nationwide programming partnerships. Currently commissioned artists include Alicia Hall Moran, Daniel J. Watts, Haig Papazian, Samora Pinderhughes, Sunny Jain, and Yacine Boulares. Joe’s Pub Working Group’s 2021-2022 cohort includes Jaime Lozano, Kirsten Maxwell, Roopa Mahadevan, Salty Brine, and Sarah Elizabeth Charles. With its intimate atmosphere and superior acoustics, Joe’s Pub presents artists from all over the world as part of The Public’s programming downtown at its Astor Place home, hosting approximately 800 shows and serving over 100,000 audience members annually. New York Voices is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
THE PUBLIC continues the work of its visionary founder Joe Papp as a civic institution engaging, both on-stage and off, with some of the most important ideas and social issues of today. Conceived over 60 years ago as one of the nation’s first nonprofit theaters, The Public has long operated on the principles that theater is an essential cultural force and that art and culture belong to everyone. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Executive Director Patrick Willingham, The Public’s wide breadth of programming includes an annual season of new work at its landmark home at Astor Place, Free Shakespeare in the Park at The Delacorte Theater in Central Park, the Mobile Unit touring throughout New York City’s five boroughs, Public Forum, Under the Radar, Public Lab, Public Works, Public Shakespeare Initiative, and Joe’s Pub. Since premiering HAIR in 1967, The Public continues to create the canon of American Theater and is currently represented on Broadway by the Tony Award- winning musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Girl From the North Country. Their programs and productions can also be seen regionally across the country and around the world. The Public has received 59 Tony Awards, 184 Obie Awards, 55 Drama Desk Awards, 58 Lortel Awards, 34 Outer Critic Circle Awards, 13 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards, 56 AUDELCO Awards, 6 Antonyo Awards, and 6 Pulitzer Prizes. publictheater.org
The Public Theater stands in honor of the first inhabitants and our ancestors. We acknowledge the land on which The Public and its theaters stand—the original homeland of the Lenape people. We acknowledge the painful history of genocide and forced removal from this territory. We honor the generations of stewards and we pay our respects to the many diverse indigenous peoples still connected to this land.
