How This TV Star Survived Her Castmates’ Chaos

Gary Gershoff/Getty Images This piece first ran on the Obsessed by Kevin Fallon Substack .

Subscribe here to read more like it! One does not necessarily expect a Real Housewife to perform Stephen Sondheim , let alone do so exquisitely.

A Real Housewives of Salt Lake City cast member belting the forlorn ballad “Losing My Mind” from Follies on a cabaret tour sounds like an elaborate joke, making the reality star the punchline.

So, color the audience stunned at Britani Bateman ’s What About Me? performance in New York City, as the self-described “thorn in their shoe” menace of the RHOSLC delivered such a rich rendition of a song associated with musical theater greats like Bernadette Peters and Liza Minnelli .

Bateman, who serves a little-sister-like role as a “friend of” the main cast—lovable, if mildly irritating to them—is different from the slew of other Real Housewives who have dabbled in pop music and cabaret performance: She actually has chops.

She first heard “Losing My Mind” when, inexplicably, the woman in the room before her sang it at a Disney princess audition at Walt Disney World.

Bateman booked the job as Belle and Ariel while the other woman did not.

That wild song choice, however, has stuck with Bateman: “It’s what resonates with me still to this day,” she told me.

Bateman later performed in the national tour of Miss Saigon as Ellen, as well as TV movies like ABC Family’s 2012 holiday film The Mistle-tones, opposite Tori Spelling.

The Bravo spotlight brought back her love of performing; she hadn’t performed with her band since 2019, and before that, she hadn’t done theater in a decade.

Does touring now give her a bug to follow in other reality stars’ footsteps and play Roxie Hart on Broadway in Chicago ? Proving her musical theater chops and knowing it’s the superior, more difficult role, she grinned and said, “I’d rather play Velma Kelly.” I first chatted with Bateman when we sat next to each other at dinner in Salt Lake City, where I had traveled to interview the RHOSLC stars on their home turf, ahead of the airing of what is already the show’s most emotional season: several marriage breakups and the shocking death of cast member Mary Cosby’s son weigh heavily amid the typical explosive drama.

We gossiped with costar Angie Katsanevas , a former frenemy, one could say, of Bateman’s, responsible for the viral moment where, during an argument, Katsanevas insulted her “high-body-count hair,” implying she looked promiscuous.

The two were as surprised as I was that they were getting along so well; several cocktails and far greater issues to worry about than their petty grievances about the past will do that.