Cyndi Lauper Sings, Sophie von Haselberg Honored at Bette Midler's Hulaween
On Friday night, Bette Midler turned The Glasshouse into an underwater fever dream for Hulaween on Horror Reef: Monsters of the Deep, the annual Halloween gala for New York Restoration Project, the organization she founded in 1995 to restore the city's parks and community gardens. The sea creatures in attendance raised over $2 million, which is serious money for a room where half the guests were dressed as shipwrecks.
The evening's Wind Beneath My Wings Award went to NYRP trustees Sophie von Haselberg and Harry Guinness, Midler's daughter and son-in-law, and was presented by Midler herself. "You can imagine how moved I am by their selection," she said. Mario Cantone emceed, Cyndi Lauper performed, and the music kept coming with sets from Jessica Vosk, Sydney James Harcourt, and Will Lee and The Root System. Isaac Mizrahi and Rachel Antonoff had the hardest job of the night: judging the costume contest.
The winners set a high bar for next year: Allie Provost's Rainbow Fish took Best Individual, Jon Recor and Daniel Stewart's Sunken Treasure took Best Duo, SoMad's All Trawled Up took Best Group, and Tripp Swanhouse's Out of the Sea took Best Upcycled. The co-chair list alone could fill a red carpet: Candice Bergen, Matthew Broderick, Danny DeVito, Jonah Hill, Julianne Moore, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kristen Wiig. Then the room danced late into the night with House of Yes and DJ Boyyyish. The cause underneath the costumes is the real story: NYRP counts more than 146,800 volunteers, over 350 restored green spaces, and 1.6 million New Yorkers living within a 10-minute walk of one.