On Labor Day weekend in 1984, or so the story goes, Lady Bunny and a pack of drunken drag queens spilled out the Pyramid Club at 2 a.m. and put on a show in Tompkins Square Park. The spontaneous spectacle was called Wigstock, and it became an annual end-of-summer NYC ritual until a combination of Mayor Giuliani and back-to-back rainouts shut it down in the late 1990s. The last Wigstock-ish event was held in 2005, as part of the East Village Howl! Festival. Until Sunday...
Spearheaded by Neil Patrick Harris, Lady Bunny's Wigstock made its return to the city on Saturday with an six-hour-long drag queen extravaganza held on the new roof venue at Pier 17 at the South Street Seaport. Not exactly Tompkins Square Park in the 1980s, but the views are lovely up there, and Lady Bunny and her co-hosts Bianca Del Rio and Latrice Royale kept the crowd (many also in drag) entertained with raunchy banter and original songs as they introduced a star-studded roster of performers.
Just your average Saturday night #wigstock @nph @official_lady_bunny
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Among the more than 50 drag—and other—artists who got up stage were Amanda Lepore, Liza Lott, Murray Hill, Toilet Boys, Alex Newell, Alaska Thunderfuck, and Juston Vivian Bond. The Tony-award winning Harris also joined in, at one point bringing his husband David Burtka and their two kids to the runway to shoot party favors into the audience from a pair of wig cannons. And you better believe Harris reprised his Tony-winning take on Hedwig from Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Lena Hall was there too!):
My wife! #yitzogram #hedwigandtheangryinch @nph #firstwife #wigstock
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