Two ‘Housewives’ reunite for ‘Games Women Play’ at Cobb Energy

McKinney, a longtime Atlanta actress, plays Caleb’s best friend, while Jordan is the messy host of a Wendy Williams-style gossip talk show where Caleb proposes to his fiancee. Both women appeared in the seventh season of “Real Housewives,” a decade ago during the show’s heyday.

Bravo “tried to pit us against each other but instead we became really close friends,” McKinney said.

“It was an honor to be on the show, but it wasn’t going to make or break us,” said Jordan, who now lives in Dallas but did reside in Atlanta for a time. “We both had long resumes even before we got on the show.”

“Games Women Play” was created by Houston playwright Je’Caryous Johnson, who has produced several stage productions aimed at Black audiences. He has also adapted films like “New Jack City” and “Set It Off” for the stage.

This is Jordan’s first time working with Johnson, but McKinney has appeared in two of his other plays: “Set it Off” and “Redemption of a Dogg,” featuring Snoop Dogg.

The play, Jordan said, “will make you laugh and cry happy tears. You will see our camaraderie. You can tell we’re having fun on stage. Give yourself a break from the news, the heaviness. The play will leave you feeling inspired, lighter and happier. AndDemetria sang her face off!”

McKinney calls the play “intricate. You’re not going to expect everything you see. The plot twists are really dope.”

Since leaving “Housewives,” McKinney has landed plenty of acting jobs, including three seasons with Freeform’s supernatural drama “Motherland: Fort Salem,” which shot in Vancouver, and a year with the CW supernatural drama “The Winchesters” in New Orleans.

“Then the strike happened and discombobulated everybody,” McKinney said. For the past few months, she has been focused on the play but will soon embark on an upcoming season of BET’s “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne,” the sitcom that launched her TV career nearly 20 years ago.

Credit: Rodney Ho

Credit: Rodney Ho

Jordan, too, has had no shortage of work over the past decade, producing multiple shows for Fox Soul, hosting a morning radio show and landing roles in more than 20 films.

She has also been co-hosting “Reality with the King,” a YouTube show with former “Housewives” producer Carlos King that forced Jordan to track “Real Housewives” this past season. A big moment saw Kenya Moore publicly showing sexually explicit images of newcomer Brit Eady after Eady verbally threatened her with a gun. Moore, for her actions, ended up getting booted from the show. Eady stayed on.

“It was wrong,” Jordan said, “but if Brit had been properly disciplined first, that never would have happened. She brought ghetto energy to ‘Real Housewives.’”

McKinney doesn’t follow the show and stays in touch only with Cynthia Bailey and Kandi Burruss, who left the show after Season 15. “They were the only women I connected with outside of Claudia,” she said.

Credit: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

Credit: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

Both women are Democrats, and Jordan is active in liberal causes, raising money for candidates. While touring with the play in Dallas, McKinney was shocked to see white supremacists demonstrating in public. “Everyone was so free in their stupidity,” she said. Jordan said she wanted to physically confront them, but other cast members held her back.

“We’ll pick our fights during the next election,” McKinney said.

Jordan said she wouldn’t rule out running for political office someday. “Maybe House of Representatives,” she said. “If Marjorie Taylor Greene can be in Congress, why can’t i? “

IF YOU GO

‘Games Women Play’

3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday, $61.80-$167.70, Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, 2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway, Atlanta, 770-916-2852, ticketmaster.com