Carson Kressley was preparing for a theater run when former President George H.W. Bush and his family became his dress-rehearsal audience.
The Queer Eye for the Straight Guy alum recalled the encounter during the Oct. 8 Watch What Happens Live After Show, telling Andy Cohen about the unexpected visitors.
He was appearing in The Drowsy Chaperone at Maine’s Ogunquit Playhouse in 2010, a short drive from the Bush family’s summer home in Kennebunkport.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the former president attended with his wife, Barbara Bush, daughter Dorothy Bush Koch and daughter-in-law Laura Bush.
Staff Named the Guests After Kressley Agreed to Let Them Watch
Andy is not the only man on set who made friends with a secret service agent 👀 #WWHL pic.twitter.com/hjPEcOt8OJ
Watch What Happens Live! (@BravoWWHL) October 9, 2026
Theater staff initially asked whether he minded having special guests at the rehearsal without naming them. Kressley recalled answering, “If I’m gonna suck, I’m gonna suck no matter what.” Only after he agreed did they identify the visitors.
From the stage, he remembered looking into a theater of about 700 seats and seeing the family grouped in the middle, with Secret Service agents positioned around them. “It was very daunting,” he said.
Kressley said the performance went well and that he made friends with the security detail afterward, joking that the agents were “super hot.” Cohen responded with his own recollection of knowing a Secret Service agent, prompting Kressley to joke that he had thought his experience was special.
Man in Chair Turned Out to Be a Substantial Role
Before rehearsals began, Kressley told Portland Magazine that he had acted in college but never taken on a part this large. He initially imagined that a character called Man in Chair would mainly require him to sit, then read the script and discovered how much the role involved.
His character plays a recording of a fictional 1928 musical, bringing its performers and wedding-day plot to life around him. The narrator comments on the action and eventually joins it.
The production ran June 9 through June 26, according to Ogunquit Playhouse. Georgia Engel appeared as Mrs. Tottendale, the role she had originated on Broadway.
Learning the Dialogue Was Only Part of the Job
In a September 2010 interview with BroadwayWorld, Kressley said the assignment also required dancing and a song, taking him outside the skills he routinely used on television.
He credited director Casey Hushion with helping him feel secure from the first rehearsal. Kressley praised her encouraging approach to the cast and described the crew and theater staff as welcoming throughout the production.
Reviewing the show for the Portland Press Herald, Steve Feeney called him “just about perfect in the role.” Feeney singled out the friendly, slightly obsessive energy familiar from Kressley’s television appearances as a good match for the musical’s narrator.
The celebrity stylist also remembered an unglamorous costume: a sweater vest and cardigan. He told BroadwayWorld that the baggy knitwear was the downside of an otherwise enjoyable job.
He Returned to Ogunquit as the Devil in ‘Damn Yankees’
Kressley returned in July 2012 as Mr. Applegate, the devil who offers baseball fan Joe Boyd a chance to help his team win in exchange for his soul.
Playwright Joe DiPietro revised Damn Yankees for the production, shifting its allegiance from the Washington Senators to the Boston Red Sox and its setting to Fenway Park. The adaptation emphasized Boston’s rivalry with the New York Yankees.
In an interview with the Press Herald, Kressley said he was working to make Applegate both charming and sinister, so the character could plausibly persuade the show’s hero to accept his offer.
Director Jeffry Denman said Kressley underestimated his singing ability. He praised the performer’s untrained tenor and worked to guide him toward singing as naturally as he spoke.