The Chappell Roan house, also known as the Pink Pony Club, brought a unique twist to Halloween decorations to Astoria this year. Photo by Iryna Shkurhan
Oct. 31, 2024 By Iryna Shkurhan
One Astoria family paid homage to Chappell Roan, one of this year’s biggest breakthrough pop stars, by transforming their porch into the ‘Pink Pony Club’ for Halloween.
On Broadway and 32nd Street, two skeletons holding microphones are staged in a cobweb sea of pink and purple lights. One wears Roan’s signature fiery red curls with a pink cowboy hat. The other evokes Roan’s Statue of Liberty drag look during a political Governor’s Ball performance in Queens earlier this summer, which drew a massive crowd.
Comedic actor and writer Amanda Bruton and her wife, who have lived in the neighborhood for over fifteen years, came up with the idea to highlight the star alongside their more conventional Halloween decor this year, given her fast rise to fame and recognition of the LGBTQ community.
During Roan’s Gov Ball performance, she dressed up as the Statue of Liberty in full-body green paint. Photo by Iryna Shkurhan
“Chappel Roan is the moment,” said Bruton, who has appeared on several popular TV shows such as Manifest, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Orange is the New Black in recent years. She filmed the latter just a couple blocks away in Astoria’s Kaufman Studios.
In the past six years of living in this house, their Halloween decorations have gotten progressively more creative. It started off with the skeletons wearing masks during the pandemic, to holding beer and cigarettes another year. But recently, they started nodding to the big pop culture moments of the year for spooky season.
Their Barbie-inspired house last year recognized the blockbuster movie with skeletons clad in hot pink t-shirts and holding some wine glasses. The tombstones read “RIP Patriarchy” in pink paint.
Last year, the Astoria family went with a Barbie theme for Halloween after the year’s biggest movie. Photo courtesy of Amanda Bruton
This year, the tombstones read “Good Luck, Babe!” after Roan’s breakthrough hit, which has been streamed over 882 million times just on Spotify since released as a single in April. Bruton says it’s a way to say, “Good luck on your way to wherever you are going in your next life.”
A sign above the skeletons reads Pink Pony Club, another nod to one of Roan’s biggest songs, which serves as a metaphor for a safe space where people in the community can exist how they are.
“What’s amazing about Chappell Roan as an artist is that yes, lesbians love her, but so does everybody else,” said Bruton, who is currently working on a series called Preggo My Lesbo about the journey to queer family life.
The tombstones reference the song that skyrocketed Roan to fame, Good Luck, Babe! Photo by Iryna Shkurhan
“Her music seems to really resonate with people of different ages and different sexualities. I think that’s really special.”
The ramp-up in porch decorations these past two years was made possible with the help of their downstairs neighbors. The fellow creatives run Rock Rising, an Astoria-based theatre production company.
Michael Johnson, the nonprofit’s creative director, is described by Bruton as a jack of all trades. He painted the tombstones and the overhead “Pink Pony Club” sign. Last year, he made the Barbie T-shirts.
The families say they’ve received nothing but positive reactions from the wider community. Earlier this week, someone shared that the “Chappell House” was the first stop on a local Halloween Lights walking tour.
The house is located on Broadway and 32nd Street in Astoria. Photo by Iryna Shkurhan
“We’ve definitely seen a lot of people take photos and have really positive reactions to it,” she noted. “Word has spread. People know about it, and they’re enjoying it.”
And they might keep the decorations up a week past Halloween. What’s to come next year? Bruton says they’ll have to see what “the moment” will be.
“We’ll have to see if we can top it. Obviously, we can’t predict where pop culture is going to be, but I have already said to my wife, ‘I kind of want a couple more skeletons.’”
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