Entertainment

THE DAY THE DANCING DIED – CATCHING UP WITH THE CLUB KIDS IN TRUE-CRIME INDIE

LIKE Andy Warhol before him, New York’s notorious clubland killer Michael Alig played Pied Piper to a gaggle of fabulous creatures of the night.

They dressed in outrageously garish costumes, and their very presence lured others scenesters to dance dens like Limelight, Tunnel and PAlladium.

Officially christened “The Club Kids” bt New York magazine in 1988, this flamboyant group held decadent bacchanals – impromptu dance aprties on subway stations and in faast-food joints – that landed them on the six o’clock news and tabloid TV shows like “Geraldo.”

But the 1996 murder of 26-year-old drug dealer Angel Melendez burst the bubble of the drug-fueled downtown night-life scene, and the fast-living crowd of drag queens, gender-benders and fashion victims scattered.

“Party Monster,” a true-crime indie film in competition at Sundance, reunites these garishly costumed club creatures – many of whom have cameos in the film.

Here’s a look at where they are now:

Michael Alig: Played by Macaulay Culkin in the movie, Alig is serving 20 years in the Southport Correctional Facility in Pine City, N.Y., for the murder of Melendez, with whom he shared an apartment in Hell’s Kitchen. Up for parole in 2006, he is at work on a book about the New York club scene.

Freeze: Alig’s roommate, whose real name is Robert Riggs, is also serving a 20-year jail term for his part in Melendez’ murder.

James St. James: Alig’s closest friend fled New York after the murder, landing in L.A. where he wrote “Disco Bloodbath,” the wickedly funny book on which “Party Monster” is based.

“I was the most unpopular girl in town,” St. James told The Post at the Sundance premiere of “Party Monster.” “And I just had to get away from New York and from all the drugs so I could work on my book.”

St. James, who still exchanges weekly letters with Alig, is currently shopping around a second book, “Killer Grandpa,” his investigation into a lynching that his grandfather led in 1935, and at work on a third book.

Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato: The duo, who performed regularly at downtown nightclubs as the Fabulous Pop Tarts during the ’80s, co-wrote and co-directed “Party Monster.”

DJ Keoki: Alig’s former boyfriend, who was a superstar DJ at Limelight’s “Disco 2000,” has a weekly gig at the Sapphire Lounge on the Lower East Side.

Gitsie: Alig’s galpal, who died of an overdose after he was imprisoned, is played in the movie by Chloe Sevigny, the indie actress who was once an unofficial club kid.

“Chloe was a part of the scene forever,” Bailey says. “She knew all of us, and she adds authenticity and street cred to the film.”

Richie Rich: Alig’s former assistant is now co-designer of downtown neo-trash fashion label Heatherette.

Amanda Lepore: The transgendered party girl serves as a “muse” for Heatherette and photographer David LaChapelle.

Junkie Jonathan, Sacred Boy and Christopher Comp: According to St. James, the former club kids are, respectively, working in a curtain factory in Connecticut, living on a dairy farm in Massachusetts, and selling glasses in Austin, Texas.