Love Ball: 40 Years After Stonewall, Let’s ALL Party & Dance!
Leave it to the Saint at Large to put on a defining Pride party. The Love Ball, which will be held on Saturday, June 27 (and well into Sunday, June 28) at the Nokia Theater in Times Square, may well mark a defining moment in the larger gay world. For the first time, the mutually alien worlds of ballroom voguing and hot-boy Circuit parties will combine into what the organizers hope is a seamless whole that will provide some great entertainment along with a night of serious dancing.
The action actually begins with a massive concert featuring a dozen out-gay and profoundly gay-friendly entertainers. The "Stonewall: the 40th Anniversary Commemorative Concert & Benefit," to give it its official name, features all-star line-up that includes everyone from Jason Walker, Colton Ford and Ari Gold to Johnny McGovern, Ariel Aparacio and the Lavender Gospel Chorus.
As the name implies, the proceeds from this gala go to charity, including the Anti-Violence Project and Marriage Equality. The inclusion of so many gay artists is especially apt, since this concert (and subsequent party) is taking place on the eve of the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the uprising at the Stonewall Bar in New York’s Greenwich Village, now universally acknowledged as the event that sparked the modern worldwide gay-rights movement.
This year, the Pride march down Fifth Avenue--the oldest such march in the world, begun a year after Stonewall--takes place on the same date as the beginning of the riots themselves. The City of New York has been making a big push to get people to the city, and it’s no surprise that promoters have jumped on the bandwagon with parties, parties, parties.
Even so, this one stands out as really, truly special.
The party that takes place after the concert is being billed as the "Love Ball," and that name was not chosen lightly: There will be voguers from various Harlem-based houses, suhc as teh Hosue of Xtrvaganza, House of Ninja and House of Acid. If you’ve seen the landmark documentary "Paris Is Burning" (if you haven’t rent it already!), you know the fabulousity of these voguers.
The challenge-and-response style of voguing is much more intense than on that Madonna video. Trust me: These girls know how to do runway. That’s why the Saint-at-Large is building a runway that will lead out from the Nokia’s capacious stage right onto the dance floor.
DJ VJuan Allure will be spinning while Jack Mizrahi does the commentary (or throws down the shade, depending on the expertise of the dancers).
Anita’s Gonna Get Her Kicks Tonight!
But wait, as they say on those infomercials for potato peelers: There’s more! Girlfirend, is there ever! Vance Garrett, who is producing this spectacular for SAL, promises "some surprises, although I don’t want to give anything away."
What we do know is that, immediately after the voguers, there will be an elaborate set of Broadway babies re-enacting the Jets v. Sharks of "West Side Story." Only this time, all that subtextual homoerotica is bubbling up to the surface and all over the Nokia’s stage.
These are the best and hunkiest gypsies starring in current hits like "Mary Poppins," "Shrek" and "The Little Mermaid." Garrett calls this "The first Broadway experience you can dance to" (guess he hasn’t been on stage at the end of "Hair"). Here’s the really tantalizing part: Garrett promises a superstar DJ--"the biggest name of the weekend"--to score this "West Side Story" takeoff. Any bets?
That takes place at 11 p.m. Yes, kids, this is one packed evening. At midnight, Chris Cox comes on "as soon as the star moment is over," as per Garrett. OK, here’s the shit: Chris Cox has had 40 Billboard chart toppers as part of the superstar duo Thunderpuss. He’s remixed Beyonc�, Janet, Christina, Britney, Madonna, Donna (yes that Donna), and every other first-name dance-music diva since the Flood.
Cox will set your booty on fire until about 3 a.m., when Alyson Calagna takes over the wheels of steel. Having experience La Calagna at last summer’s Ascension Pool Party, I am here to testify that she knows how to get the boys bumping. Did I mention that Guy Smith (!!!) is doing the lighting, with special sound installation adding to the Nokia’s already state-of-the-art system on a dance floor that can accommodate many conga-lined happy-happy celebrants?
The evening will end respectably early enough in the a.m. so that you can get 40 or so winks before joining a few million on the long march from the 50s down to the Village the next day. Well, by now, the same day, but who’s counting?
In case you forgot, the Stonewall Uprising took place the same day as Judy Garland’s internment at Frank Campbell’s Funeral Home about 70 blocks Uptown. OK, you forgot. To remind you, Sophia LeMarr will be singing an endless loop of Judy’s signature tune, "The Man That Got Away," at the bar.
And should I mention that the Nokia is a space with a full-on balcony full of seats, just like the old Saint, where the boys can get to know each other a little better? Or that this great space has lots of nooks and crannies where you can get away from the music and the hordes of people to chill with your nearest and dearest?
We’re All Here Together
Saint-at-Large impresario Stephen Pevner has built an evening around what he calls "the three groups at Stonewall: white guys, hippies and drag queens, all of whom were at the bar at that moment."
Pevner might have made his reputation on the Black Party, but his other parties reflect his roots in theater, as well as a desire to integrate the humpy party crowd with something greater than itself. "Sometimes, the party world of Gay Pride appeals only to one segment," he said. "There are as many representatives from groups there that night as possible" at the Love Ball.
So this party may come to mean something greater than a night of artistry, performance and dancing. Pevner sees it as a much-need--and long-awaited--uniting of the various groups that together make up the letters of LGBT, the rainbow in that flag we all wave. Citing the "fragmentation of gay culture," Pevner said, "we were hoping to bring these two pillars of the gay world together for the first time in honor of that 40th anniversary."
Sounds like a plan. And a night to remember.
To score tickets to the Saint-at-Large’s "Love Ball," log onto www.saintatlarge.com and follow the prompts. General admission tickets will be $60 through June 18; $70 thereafter. $125 VIP Tickets gets you backstage access (all those humpy Broadway gypsies!)--available online only.
You can also get a ticket to Love Ball and the next day’s mega-event, the Dance on the Pier, for only $130 online only.
If you’re under under 28 year old, you can get a reduced ticket at the door with I.D. (don’t even think about it!) before midnight.
Tickets are also available at Nasty Pig, 265A W. 19th St.; Wear Me Out, 353 W. 47th St.; Village Apothecary, 346 Bleecker St. (at 6th Ave.); and Screaming Mimi’s, 382 Lafayette St.
For more information, contact thesaint@saintatlarge.com or (212) 674-8541
