Desire :: Lee Chappell & Chris Ryan Present A Masquerade Ball

If you've ever imagined the characters from Alice's Wonderland romping through Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, while viewed through a kaleidoscope, then you might have an idea of the baroque, Venetian freak-and-glamour fest that filled Capitale on Friday night of NYC Pride weekend for Lee Chappell and Chris Ryan's masquerade ball DESIRE.

First, the setting: formerly the Bowery Savings Bank, Capitale was designed by legendary New York architect Stanford White-and with its forest of Corinthian columns, mosaic marble floors, Murano glass, velvet curtains, and gilded nooks and crannies, this is one of the more stunning party palaces in all of Manhattan. Stanford White was something of a New York party boy (going so far as to get himself shot and killed atop the Madison Roof Garden, for his dalliance with the girl on the red velvet swing, actress/model, Evelyn Nesbit)-and surely, White would have enjoyed the delicious gallimaufry of downtown denizens and nightlife habitu�s who ransacked closets and couturiers to cavort in a dazzling array of costuming that kept the jaw dropping throughout the night.

This was a rainbow-fueled fantasy walk through the epochs of human history, populated by powdered and wigged courtesans from Versailles alongside Kabuki stilt walkers, Charleston flappers and harlequin go-go boys. There were top hats and wigs, feathers and sequins, veils and netting, ruffles and satin trains, beading and pearls-and every fetish footwear imaginable, from sky-high platforms to anti-gravity jumping boots.

There were jugglers and rope artists, acrobats and hula hoops, and The Man of Ten Dozen White Balloons, and the Glamazon in the Cape of a Thousand Stuffed Animals, and Master Bitch, a man attired in such an excess of glitter, tinsel, and tulle that it appeared as if Elton John's closet had exploded atop him.

A rainbow-fueled fantasy catwalk through history

As nightlife emeritus extraordinaire, Lee Chappell, said, "It's a new generation"-and the salmagundi of shenanigans throughout the night felt as if Salvador Dali were joined by Tim Burton for a completely Technicolor surreal catwalk led by a human violin, and the Butoh Rockettes, and the Woman of a Hundred Rainbow Cake Slices (complete with forks)-with the $500 first prize swooped away by a human-sized, resplendent macaw.

Righteous beatmistress Alyson Calagna was joined by Hector Fonseca, the two of them laying down the perfect soundtrack for such psychedelia, working in a thundering back beat that wrapped around the Corinthian columns and reverberated off the 65-foot vaulted ceiling, which was washed in a ocean of blues of pinks. Holly Daggers' video projections were like hallucinogenic eye candy, while a live performance by siren songstress OhLand who sang a three-song set, including "Masquerade," was followed by a runway show of such iridescence as to rival Nemo's underwater world. As one South Beach boy was overhead saying, "Gee, after seeing this-Miami needs to step it up a bit."

And who was there? A surfeit of stunners, including Andres Monteil and Bene Abbate and Matthew Wright, as well as Michael D'Arinzio, Brian 'Serving' O-vahness and Sergio 'Working' O-vahness, and Chris and Eddie and Jojo, Tres Ness, and Erica Gabriel (working mermaid beauty), and Jake Resnicow and the Matinee Group, and King Ralphy, and downtown luminaries such as Chi Chi Valenti, Jeremy X-travaganza, Steven Perfidia, Little Kenny, Gant Johnson, Michael Tronn, Celso De La Blanca, Britney Houston, Pat Moose, Sybil Bruncheon, Christopher Bousquet of Cirque du Soleil, and dancers from the House of YES, alongside circuit star go-go boy, "Ricky" Michael Perez.

The entire evening was evocative of Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights-albeit without the torment, and ALL the delight-and the perfect kick-start to an outrageously, excessive New York City Pride weekend.