Sheldon Silver — Naughty Yet Sophisticated In His Own Right — Is Good For Something After All*

You don’t know which is worse — the name “Forty Deuce” or the fact that it would have the Sting/Ziggy Stardust imprimatur:

A planned burlesque nightclub reportedly financed by musicians David Bowie and Sting is running into heated opposition from residents in the Lower East Side.

The club, planned for a building just north of Chinatown, could bring a new glitz and nightlife to Kenmare Street, a residential and relatively low-rent retail strip that is gradually seeing a shift to a more upscale business makeup. But the opposition indicates that as the Lower East Side becomes thicker with luxury condominiums, businesses seeking to locate there may face a less permissive environment than they once did.

With a Community Board meeting scheduled for tomorrow, residents are vehemently opposed to the nightclub, named Forty Deuce and spearheaded by club mogul Ivan Kane, criticizing it as a late-night striptease club that is grossly inappropriate for the neighborhood.

Its owners assert that the business is modeled after upscale nightclubs of a previous era, in which women performed, keeping some of their clothes on, before well-dressed crowds in smoke-filled rooms.

“Watch as gifted burlesque dancers sashay down the bar in front of the legendary curtain of pearls,” a page on the Web site for Forty Deuce said in April before it was taken down in recent months. “New York City nightclubs haven’t had this kind of hip, swanky entertainment since the days when nightclubs became classics.”

The site, which called the atmosphere “naughty yet sophisticated,” has provided fodder for opponents, who have gathered about 2,000 signatures against the club. Several elected officials, including Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who represents the Lower East Side, have recommended the state not issue the club a liquor license. That would likely kill the plans.

*Or maybe two things.