As the sun descended into the heavens over Central Park last weekend, thereby officially marking summer’s end, drag cabaret auteur Justin Bond took the stage to kick off the Joe’s Pub-helmed 20th Century Boy: Marc Bolan and T.Rex 30th Anniversary Celebration. Mr. Bond, one-half of the piano-plunking duo Kiki & Herb, warbled through a hit-or-miss medley of Karen Carpenter tunes, looking like the deranged love child of Merv Griffin and Marie Osmond.

With a fuchsia-striped polyester blouse, Bond, sans Herb (his man Friday) played the host of his very own variety hour. The only things missing from the grade-C kitsch were patches of shag carpeting and Mort Lindsey. The glamfest dredged up a cavalcade of who’s-who in the Manhattan gay music scene, including everyone from club promoter Earl Dax, to transgendered ivory tickler Our Lady J, and yes, even Rufus Wainwright himself.

On break from touring in support of his most challenging operatic work yet, “Release the Stars”, Mr. Wainwright nestled up next to Three’s Company luminary Joyce DeWitt. “My name is Rufus Wainwright. I just want to tell you that I watched you on television all the time,” Wainwright told DeWitt, his starstruck eyes big as saucers.

Meanwhile, the dear boy himself, Scissor Sister Jake Shears, cooked up velvety vocals onstage for a Close to You tribute, one that Mr. Shears sang with the conviction of American Idol contestant under the withering glare of Simon Cowell.

The Carpenters’ magnum opus “Superstar” was soon processed through Mr. Bond’s croaky phonics for the set closer. It was almost as if Karen Carpenter had swallowed a clod of gravel and gurgled a tumbler of turpentine.

But the real bells and whistles came later. Patti Smith, in fine form, performed searing vocals on the Bolan-penned “Children of the Revolution,” ripping into her ‘a-yi-yis’ and bringing the Central Park crowd to their knees. If Smith had started another revolution, we would be her willing faction.