On a recent Wednesday afternoon, Luann de Lesseps — or “The Countess,” as she is known on Bravo’s reality series “The Real Housewives of New York City” — was trying something new: memorizing her lines.

“I am not a scripted actress — I’m more of an off-the-cuff-type person,” she said.

Standing in front of a baby-grand piano in her bright Upper West Side penthouse, freezing rain tapping gently against the windows, Ms. de Lesseps studied a printout of her introductory remarks for #CountessAndFriends, a cabaret show that will debut at the Manhattan nightclub Feinstein’s/54 Below on Feb. 27. As the Grammy-winning composer Billy Stritch played “With a Little Help From My Friends,” she addressed an imaginary crowd, and the elephant in the room.

“I had a list of songs I wanted to sing tonight, but as it turns out I am reconsidering some of them — like ‘Jailhouse Rock’ and ‘I Fought the Law and the Law Won,’” said Ms. de Lesseps, dressed in Lululemon pants, a black turtleneck and velvet slippers. “Craaaazy,” she crooned like an unhinged Patsy Cline, “for thinking I could get out of those handcuffs.”

Ms. de Lesseps was alluding to an incident that took place several weeks earlier, on the evening of Dec. 23, when she tried to escape a patrol car after getting arrested for disorderly intoxication and assaulting a police officer at the Colony Hotel in Palm Beach, Fla. Afterward, her mug shot appeared in just about every tabloid in America. In January, she pleaded not guilty to one felony (resisting an officer with violence) and two misdemeanors (trespassing and disorderly intoxication). A hearing has been set for April 13.