Stand clear of the closing doors, please — the Miss Subways pageant has just crowned a new queen of the rails.
Abby Fantastic, a 40-year-old burlesque performer/native New Yorker based in East Flatbush, sashayed to victory Friday night when she represented the “A line” at NYC’s annual, fun-filled palooza, held at Coney Island USA’s Sideshows by the Seashore Theater.
The event honors the city’s oft-frustrating, always iconic public transit system, along with the 4 million-plus New Yorkers who use the MTA’s subway every day.
“Being a fourth generation New Yorker, I love this city,” said Fantastic, who clinched this year’s “transit tiara” with a two-part burlesque performance, dancing to an instrumental version of “Harlem Nocturne” (a 1939 jazz standard by Earle Hagen) and “Rockaway Beach” (a 1977 hit by the Ramones) while stripping down to an MTA-blue outfit that included A train nipple covers. “I’m raising my children here because I want to live in New York …To be able to represent and be here is an honor.”
The talent showcase, orchestrated by the City Reliquary, featured seven contestants this year, including a mix of burlesque performers, comedians and vocalists, as well as a puppeteer and an aerialist.
Dave Herman, founder of the City Reliquary museum in Williamsburg, told The Post that the finalists were handpicked from a pool of “dozens” of applicants, and that the number of would-be participants for the campy contest has been increasing “every year.”
“We wanted to invite people to have a moment on stage with performing/showing whatever their skills may be, but also with an importance on how they represent the ridership of New York’s subway system,” said Herman.
“Somebody who has a sense of pride in being a straphanger, and who’s also going to advocate for improvements,” he continued. “There’s a sense of civic pride and stewardship that we look for in candidates.”
A history of Miss Subways
The annual contest, which was revived by the reliquary back in 2017, has evolved into a celebratory evening full of kitschy theatrics — but it did not start that way.
According to Polly Desjarlais, the New York Transit Museum content manager and transit historian, the original Miss Subways was a scouted-out beauty contest, rather than an in-person showcase, originating back in 1941.
It began shortly after the city unified the subway system by merging the IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit) and BMT (Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation) with the city-owned IND (Independent Subway System). Around that same time, the New York Subways Advertising Company had gained exclusive rights to sell ad space on the subways and elevated lines.
Desjarlais explained that one of the org’s first initiatives was to launch “Meet Miss Subways” — a campaign intended to draw riders’ attention to the advertisements inside subway cars and, most importantly, to increase ad revenue.
While the earliest winners were “discovered” in everyday places, thereby getting their photos and a short biography plastered on subway car placards, the contest — which is widely regarded as one of America’s first integrated beauty pageants — became so popular that New Yorkers started sending in applications to nominate the women in their own lives.
The sweepstakes opened up to rider voting in the 1960s, with this selection method continuing until the contest’s end in 1976.
“A ‘girl next door’ quality became one of the campaign’s defining traits,” Desjarlais told The Post. “Miss Subways winners were not necessarily professional models or glamour girls. They were meant to feel like ordinary New Yorkers — ones who worked, went to school, rode the subway, and had dreams of making something of themselves.”
A modern-day remake and this year’s show
While the original Miss Subways campaign shuttered in 1976 (with a one-year resurgence by the MTA in 2004), the City Reliquary officially revived the contest on a grander scale in 2017 — this time, with several 21st-century twists.
Instead of a scouted or write-in format, the modern-day version became an in-person pageant with a campier, slightly off-kilter feel. In the name of inclusivity, Herman and his team also decided that instead of just opening the contest to young female contestants, people of all gender identities and ages could apply to compete for the Miss Subways crown, so long as they were over the age of 18.
While the event was forced to take a brief hiatus for a few years during the height of COVID-19, it came back in 2023 — bigger and better than ever.
Now, each contestant represents a particular train line, performing their talent for the audience and a panel of judges.
Contestants also answer a series of MTA-related interview questions — typically while dressed in a subway-themed costume — for a chance to win the coveted Big Apple title.
This year, approximately 130 New Yorkers crammed into Coney Island’s Sideshows by the Seashore Theater to enjoy the sold-out, offbeat pageant.
Judges included local celebrities Joe Coleman, a painter, writer and performer); Queerly Femmetastic, a burlesque performer and Miss Subways 2024; and Bernie Wagenblast, a voice of the MTA, most famous for saying, “Please stand away from the platform edge”). The night’s special guest announcer was Charlie Pellett, a veteran news anchor and reporter for Bloomberg Radio who is also an MTA voice, known for his iconic line, “Stand clear of the closing doors, please!”
Brini Maxwell, a “domestic doyenne” drag personality who served as the M.C. of the night, opened the show with an original musical number, crooning lyrics like “You’ll miss subways just thinking about her…” while simultaneously introducing this year’s finalists.
Next came the talent portion of the evening. In addition to Abby Fantastic’s artful burlesque performance, contestant acts included an educational subway slideshow by Jess Joseph (2 train); a “Subway Mania” wrestling performance by LuXury Leah (4 train); musical improv by Trudy Carmichael (C train); a song by Alecia Kalsi (Franklin Avenue Shuttle); a “powwow-disco fusion” performance by Kaley Morrison (R train); and hoops act by Sugar Hoops (L train).
Following a brief intermission, Act 2 of the pageant included remarks by the representatives of the City Reliquary, Coney Island USA and the Riders Alliance.
And in the interview segment, pageant contestants were peppered with questions about straphanger scenarios and oddies, including, “What’s one change you would like to see on the subway that would have a positive impact on the broadest ridership?” (“Accessibility,” Morrison answered), and “What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever seen on the subway?” (“People full of pigeons — all the love, but I know you’re covered in s–t in there,” quipped Sugar Hoops).
After Miss Subways 2025 Bimini Cricket reprised the standout karaoke performance that secured her last year’s title — an original MTA-coded parody of The Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight,” coined “Ratter’s Delight” — Fantastic was ceremoniously crowned Miss Subways 2026.
Wagenblast, judging the kooky contest for the second time, told The Post that to her, the “most fun” aspect of Miss Subways is the creativity of the contestants — along with the unique way the pageant honors NYC culture.
“New York would not be New York without the subways,” said Wagenblast. “It gets everybody around town. It’s not just for one class of people — it’s where all New Yorkers come together.
“To me, that’s what’s magical about it.”
