Three decades ago, Bette Midler eyed trash-filled parks in New York City with a mixture of dismay and anger. But unlike most people who complain about things in NYC, she did something about it—and inspired countless others to follow in her footsteps. In 1995, the actress-singer-comedian tapped her connections and resources to form the New York Restoration Project (NYRP), which over the course of the last 30 years has cleaned up, transformed and created green spaces for New Yorkers across the five boroughs, with a focus on helping underserved communities get the green space they deserve as much as the loaded locales living across from Central Park.
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Part of the NYRP’s fundraising arm is its annual Hulaween gala, an explosion of costumed creativity that took over Manhattan’s Cipriani South Street on Friday (Oct. 24) night to mark 30 years of the Tony-, Grammy-, Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning icon’s nonprofit. And what better way to salute the tart-tongued talent than publicly insult her. “We’re here for the late Bette Midler,” joked surprise performer Buddy Young Jr., aka Billy Crystal resurrecting the character from his 1992 dramedy Mr. Saturday Night. “Talk about a restoration project!”
Backed by a band led by the indefatigable Will Lee, Crystal performed a bawdy tune and cracked a few Borscht Belt-styled jokes (“My wife told me to come upstairs and make love to her; I told her, ‘Make up your mind, I can’t do both!’”), clearly relishing the opportunity to dust off the deliciously kitschy character from his directorial debut and surprise an old friend. By the time Midler took the stage to accept the catalyst award to mark her environmental efforts, she was genuinely in tears, having had no idea Crystal and Marc Shaiman, another longtime friend, would be onstage paying tribute to her.
Midler herself got off a few zingers during her heartfelt speech, which saw her generously praise dozens of people who helped her nonprofit help New Yorkers over the decades. “Credit where credit is due,” she said as she thanked Rudy Giuliani (who was not present) for helping NYRP back when he was the city’s mayor—“back when he was sane,” she added, casting an eye up to the heavens: “God help that young man.”
The 2025 Hulaween theme was “New York, New York, A Helluva Town!”, which inspired dozens of knockout costumes, from a group who did Sesame Street characters to a woman who walked around in a bloody daze with a fallen AC unit smashed around her body. That theme also inspired the musical selections for the evening’s performers: Christopher Cross trotted out his Oscar-winning tune “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)”; Ben Platt knocked a funky cover of the Drifters’ “On Broadway” out of the park; Sandra Bernhard belted a killer take on St. Vincent’s “New York” (any song with “motherf–ker” in the lyrics is gonna be a natural fit for Bernhard); Shoshana Bean sang a delightful version of the Ad Libs’ girl-group classic “The Boy From New York City”; and Marisha Wallace dazzled with a powerhouse “New York, New York” in the vein of the original Liza Minnelli version.
The event raised $2.9 million, thanks in large part to a $1 million donation from designer Mica Ertegun (the wife of late music industry titan Ahmet Ertegun) prior to her death. Generous bids from the 500-strong crowd—which included Michael Kors, Darren Criss, Andy Cohen (as Andy Warhol), host Busy Philipps (as Cher in Moonstruck), Jann Wenner, Graydon Carter and Midler’s daughter Sophie von Haselberg—also helped bring in that whopping total for the nonprofit’s 30th birthday.
“That’s what we were put on earth to do,” Midler said at one point during the night. “To share. Not to hoard.”