The opening party for Vikram Chatwal’s Times Square Dream Hotel had the surreal feeling of a dream, all right—but a bad one, since overcrowding made the space nearly impossible to navigate.
The hotel’s far-out decor includes lots of mirrors and a striking curved aquarium in the lobby. An array of performers added to the eclectic look and feel: Horn players and drag queens in mirrored cat suits lined the red carpet, and the entertainment inside ranged from a ladies’ classical trio to nearly naked, green body-painted performers writhing on a massive green sculpture.
But it wasn’t easy to enjoy the wild entertainment and champagne bar, because the party was so packed. Far more people showed up than the space could accommodate, and guests’ attitudes turned nasty when they found themselves crammed in like cattle. The main party space was in the 14th-floor penthouse bar, with its spectacular Times Square views, but the tiny elevators held few people apiece, and the lines in the lobby were so long that many guests gave up and left. According to a New York Daily News report, some guests who made it upstairs complained that the elevators made scary and unexpected stops, and others—like celebs Chris Heinz, Rosario Dawson, and Luke Wilson—had to climb the stairs to the top when the elevators overheated and stopped altogether later in the evening. Moral of the story: Trim the guest list to suit the venue’s capacity, or risk turning a dream opening into a nightmare.
—Alesandra Dubin
The hotel’s far-out decor includes lots of mirrors and a striking curved aquarium in the lobby. An array of performers added to the eclectic look and feel: Horn players and drag queens in mirrored cat suits lined the red carpet, and the entertainment inside ranged from a ladies’ classical trio to nearly naked, green body-painted performers writhing on a massive green sculpture.
But it wasn’t easy to enjoy the wild entertainment and champagne bar, because the party was so packed. Far more people showed up than the space could accommodate, and guests’ attitudes turned nasty when they found themselves crammed in like cattle. The main party space was in the 14th-floor penthouse bar, with its spectacular Times Square views, but the tiny elevators held few people apiece, and the lines in the lobby were so long that many guests gave up and left. According to a New York Daily News report, some guests who made it upstairs complained that the elevators made scary and unexpected stops, and others—like celebs Chris Heinz, Rosario Dawson, and Luke Wilson—had to climb the stairs to the top when the elevators overheated and stopped altogether later in the evening. Moral of the story: Trim the guest list to suit the venue’s capacity, or risk turning a dream opening into a nightmare.
—Alesandra Dubin