New York's most risque cabaret to open in London
Dancing vaginas and tales of off-stage excess have made The Box a sleazy Manhattan institution
It is 2am and a woman dressed as a giant vagina is dancing on stage. Welcome to The Box, a club night that has established itself as Manhattan's home of risque cabaret and is about to launch in the UK.
The man behind New York's notorious X-rated sensation is Simon Hammerstein, grandson of lyricist Oscar Hammerstein. His club opened in 2007 in a defunct sign factory on Chrystie Street, a less-than-salubrious stretch of Manhattan's gentrifying Lower East Side. But the glamorous jewel box of a theatre looks like it was plucked from New Orleans' fetid heyday.
The Box proved an instant hit with celebrities: Jude Law and Rachel Weisz were advisers, Moby was an investor and a regular. Kanye West and Lady Gaga performed there, Lindsay Lohan twirled on a stripper's pole. There were tales of excess off stage to match those on. As the acts became more extreme some, including Moby, moved on. The pop star complained: "I like degeneracy, but for The Box you really need to be in the right frame of mind. The things that go on there don't make sense to me."
Now Hammerstein plans to open The Box in London's old Raymond Revue Bar, once Soho's legendary home of sleazy entertainment. The American recently held a party there for Fawn James, the late sex baron Paul Raymond's granddaughter. "The audience was so warm and loud it was really exciting. I was kind of dreading the opening before that, but now I can't wait," said Hammerstein.
He decided he had to open in London a few years ago, after staging a show at Wilton's Music Hall in the East End for the Frieze art fair. "I think it's the place where the cancan was first performed in England and they all got arrested. That show was one of the best received shows we had ever done anywhere."
The local authority and many residents are giving the raucous newcomer a cautious welcome. Scores of Soho's traditional sex shops, massage parlour! s and st rip joints have closed in recent years, provoking a backlash with concerns that a famously rackety area of London is being transformed into a bland space colonised by chain bars and restaurants. The Box sailed through its application for a licence last November.
A spokeswoman for Westminster council said: "The licence was granted after consultation with police and other groups; we believe that the operator is reputable and well regarded, and we don't really have any concerns about it. We'd rather have activity there than an empty space. We understand this is a burlesque show more than just lots of bits on display."
Lesley Hardcastle, a local resident for 45 years and president of the Soho Society, said: "The joy of this area has always been its variety. We have succeeded in preserving the buildings, but not the multitude of small businesses and activities which once flourished here. I'd rather see a burlesque club open than yet another branch of Slug and Lettuce."
Hammerstein and his British wife Francesca have been spending a lot of time in London recently. "I love the humour, the tongue in cheek, the sarcasm and dryness. Our show is very dark and dry. It has that transgressive humour that the English really get with panto and music hall."
Some of his New York acts will be coming with him, but he's also auditioning for local talent to meet a potentially more demanding audience. "In London young people read the theatre section. In America if you look at who goes to Broadway, it's grandmas and grandchildren. In London everyone's seen Jerusalem and they all go on about it," he said.
Hammerstein said he was excited to be working in such an icon of Soho's past. Inside the new venue, Hammerstein discovered old tiles from a butcher's shop that he has incorporated into the design. "There is such a lot of history there, I wanted to create the feel that there had been lots of owners, different layers of history. We had to fake that in New York, whereas in London it actually has the h! istory."
The London Box has another, more unusual, inspiration: Jimmy Gardner, the prolific bit part actor, and decorated war hero. Gardner, who died last year, played bus driver Ernie Prang in Harry Potter and Prisoner of Azkaban and appeared in everything from Royal Shakespeare Company productions to EastEnders and Doctor Who. He had been a family friend of the Hammersteins for decades since working with Simon's mother, the playwright Dena Hammerstein. "He was the ultimate 85-year-old hippy," said Hammerstein. "His house had layers and layers of bric-a-brac and mirrors and stuff he'd found at the local markets. He'd decorate with plates and all kinds of things. Influences of his apartment are all over the space," he said.
Luke Dixon, a theatre director who has run workshops teaching burlesque and lives in Soho, said: "It does sound like a wonderful idea to have live performance back in the old Revue Bar. It has been sad to walk past and see such an iconic building sink into slow dereliction. The interior and especially the wonderful bar deserve to be listed.""
Michael Musto, gossip columnist for New York's Village Voice, said The Box's edge had slipped. "The last time I remember reading about it was when Susan Sarandon got fake pee-ed on. That must have been over a year ago." But Musto said he believes Hammerstein has a big future: "London will love The Box," he predicted. "I've always felt Simon had it in him to turn into this huge entrepreneur, spreading those bodily fluids around the world."
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