As Lady Gaga took the stage at the Apollo Theater on Monday night, she had two questions for her audience.
“Are you ready to f—–g party tonight? Are we making history?”
The show did make history, at least for Gaga, as it was her first appearance at the famed theater in Harlem. As for the first question, her fans — who she calls her “Little Monsters” — were definitely ready to go nuts to catch the 33-year-old megatalent.
“So excited to see her and celebrate Pride,” former “Saturday Night Live” and “Parks and Recreation” star Amy Poehler told the Daily News before entering the theater. “I saw her in Vegas and loved it. Love ‘Born This Way.’ “
Poehler wasn’t the only heavy hitter in the crowd. From Alaska Thunderf–k, a drag performer who won Season 2 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” to the controversial televangelist and anti-LGBTQ pastor Joel Osteen, the event drew an eclectic mix of fans, industry insiders and celebrities, from the movies (Catherine Zeta-Jones, Michael Douglas), the music universe (Clive Davis, Adam Lambert), the fashion world (Alexander Wang), television (John Oliver, Camila Mendes) and the America’s gay Royal couple and Harlem residents Neil Patrick Harris and husband David Burtka.
Osteen’s presence was curious, because Gaga has championed LGBTQ causes.
For the former NYU-dropout, it was all about being back to her roots: The gays made Gaga. Gaga gave back to the gays. The gays gagged. Gaga is their goddess.
The clearly LGBTQ-leaning-and-loving crowd went crazy after one of their most extravagant took time to acknowledge the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.
During the most emotional part of the show, playing the piano by herself, Gaga explained that the fight for equal rights started “when our community said ‘enough is enough’. And she celebrated the bravery and courage of one of the early gay rights leader Marsha P. Johnson, a tragically underappreciated hero.
The moment was reminiscent of one of her first acceptance speeches, when in 2009 she gave thanks “to God and the gays,” sending the LGBTQ community a sign of what was to come.”
“World Pride should exist 365 days a year,” she declared.
As a nod to the transgender community, she told the audience to pay attention to people’s pronouns, as “we are all in this together.”
Among those in the crowd were Jamie Smith and Courtney Connors, who run a blog called Drag Coven. They said they have seen Lady Gaga on all her concert tours.
“I like her because of the way her music makes you feel,” Smith said. “She’s genuinely a good person who makes you feel good, even though she’s very famous.”
The show celebrated a new partnership between music streaming giants SiriusXM and Pandora, and tickets were not available to the general public. Smith and Connors got theirs through a crew member, and the celebrities scored the ducats by being stars.
New Yorkers Dani Jacobson and Amanda Miller both had ins through their jobs. Jacobson works at a talent agency and Miller at a record company.
“She makes music for music, not for anything else,” Miller said.
The near-two-hour spectacle was made up of mini-sets with some of her greatest hits, peppered with some Dire Straits-inspired instrumental interludes.
Gaga performed a selection of her most beloved hits dancing around, in a most homoerotic latex fantasy, dropping F-bombs and getting tips from the future by speaking to an “Avatar”-like Gaga figure. (“My enigma is my wisdom, my gut, my inner voice.”)
And her inner voice was telling her to Just Dance. And to “Celebrate your freedom.”
Mother Monster was at home, and the energy in the room was contagious.
The special performance will air on SiriusXM Hits 1 on Friday, June 28 at 5 pm ET/ PT, on Howard 101 on Friday, June 28 at 11 pm ET, on Pandora NOW on Saturday, June 29 at 5 pm ET and will re broadcast on all three channels throughout the weekend.
But for those lucky enough to attend Monday’s show, there was nothing like being on hand.
Maryland resident Abby Digate was there with a friend after winning a Sirius radio concert — complete with concert tickets, plane travel and a hotel room in Times Square.
“Gaga embraces everybody who is different,” Digate said. “She’s so inspiring.”
