The Box Set To Open London Branch: Sex And Hammerstein Music For All

by Ross Kenneth Urken · January 31, 2011

    LES burlesque nightclub The Box will open a louche sister venue in London's old Raymond Revue Bar. It's time to pump some New York sexuality into London's staid, bourgey Soho.

    As Bowery Boogie notes, the Guardian UK reports that residents of London's Soho believe the "famously rackety area of London is being transformed into a bland space colonised by chain bars and restaurants." In a sense this saucy establishment could pump a little juice back to a neighborhood that is fast gentrifying into a crotchety, unhip, commercialized district far away from the sexualized Rotlichtviertel it billed itself as during its emergence.

    Clubowner Simon Hammerstein is the controversial grandson of famous lyricist Oscar Hammerstein, and the venue will feature burlesque talent from both sides of the Pond.

    Of course, London's new outpost will have a lot to live up to as a propagator of smut and risque behavior with New York's Box featuring geisha teases, dildo play, drug abuse, and sexual offenses--not to mention the rape cases that tarnished the club's reputation in 2008. This is not your gay uncle's Duplex.

    If London wants its edge back, it will certainly get a boost of Gotham oomph and pizazz from this bete noire of a club. Obviously, though, this leverage can come with great ramifications.