Inside The 2023 Hulaween Gala

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WHAT: Bette Midler’s & New York Restoration Project’s annual Halloween gala, Hulaween

WHEN: Friday, Oct. 27

WHO: Chlöe, Dionne Warwick, Padma Lakshmi, Awkwafina, Dylan Mulvaney, Myles Frost, Thorgy Thor

WHERE: Cipriani South Street

WHY: To celebrate Halloween and fundraise for NYRP’s efforts to restore and renew parks, gardens, and other green spaces citywide

THE VIBE:

Bette Midler is the unofficial queen of Halloween, and it’s not just because of her seminal performance Winifred Sanderson in Hocus Pocus. Every year, Midler throws the blowout gala of the season with New York’s Restoration Project, which she founded in 1995, to raise money for NYC green spaces — and, equally as crucial, give guests the chance to go all out with some of the most extravagant costumes in the city.

For its latest iteration “Once Upon a Hulaween: Scarytales & Deadtime Stories,” Hulaween took over Cipriani’s iconic South Street location for its night of spooky debauchery. Although costumes were technically optional, there was not a half-assed ensemble in sight; Disney princesses stomped around on circus stilts, nymphs mingled with the undead, Moldy Locks (that’s Goldilocks, if she was moldy and in a fugue state) crossed paths with the Twisted Tooth Fairy, and the Raven from Edgar Allen Poe’s Evermore waited alongside me to order “specialty potions” — like Mujen Midnight Spells, Blood Moon Margaritas, and Nightmare Negronis — from the fully-stocked open bar.

Tony-award winning actor and MJ the Musical star Myles Frost served as the electric master of ceremonies, keeping the crowd entertained through speeches from a Día de los Muertos-ified Mark Conseulos, auction items (including a 15-minute Zoom with music industry titan Clive Davis that sold for a whopping $25,000), and a costume contest judged by seven-time Tony Award-winning theater producer, Jordan Roth, dressed as Snow White Evil Queen in custom look from fashion designer Zac Posen.

After the final dinner plates and plastic Jell-O shot containers had been cleared, Frost introduced the legendary Dionne Warwick to the stage, who sang a moving rendition of her 1985 hit “That’s What Friends Are For.” Once Chlöe took the stage, every ghoul and goblin in attendance jumped out of the their seat to dance, carrying the energy straight into the afterparty.

BEST DRESSED: Studios Architecture for their winning ensemble costume for The Birds, featuring a murder of feisty crows and a perfectly frazzled Melanie Daniels

OVERHEARD: “Just take what you spent on your costume and triple it!” — the auctioneer suggesting how “easy” it would be to donate $15,000 to the NYRP