This story has been updated since it was first published.
Notoriously edgy nightlife impresario Simon Hammerstein, owner of the famous Box nightclubs in New York City and London, will be the first “curator” at West Hollywood’s DBA nightspot, set to open Nov. 14.
The club, at 7969 Santa Monica Blvd. at Edinburgh, replaces the S&M-themed nightclub Voyeur and will be part performance space, part art gallery and part dance club. Owner Cardiff Giant, which also owns WeHo’s the Hudson and LA’s the Churchill, will turn over the space seasonally to “guest curators” who will have full control of the creative direction, including exhibition name, decor, fixtures, staging, set/costume design and creation of a storefront window that will present the theme.
The grandson of lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, of Rogers and Hammerstein fame, Simon Hammerstein burst onto the nightlife scene 6 1/2 years ago with the opening of the Box, New York’s oftentimes sexually explicit “theatre of varieties.”
In 2011, he opened a version in London’s Soho. Within weeks club-goers were buzzing about the debauched acts allegedly occurring inside, including acrobatics, threesomes, men dressed as pigs licking food off strippers’ stomachs and a performer named “Laqueefa” playing tunes with her genitalia.
“The world Hammerstein is creating inside DBA will be gritty, uncomfortable and thrilling while leaving endless possibilities for a space where anything might happen,” said Edward Allen, a publicist for Cardiff Giant. “Avid fans of Hammerstein’s venue include Jude Law, Ezra Koenig, Mick Jagger, Rihanna and Kate Moss so you never know who will be on their way to a blackout, sneaking off to the bathroom, or participating in an impromptu performance.”
According to Allen, Hammerstein’s projects have included transgendered stripteases, sword-swallowing, marching bands, Italian opera and a staging of Jack Kerouac’s play “Beat Generation.”
Allen added that Hammerstein “plans on using the nightclub’s adult cabaret license to the fullest.”
As the S&M-themed nightclub Voyeur, the space once featured topless dancers and simulated lesbian sex for an audience that sometimes included notables such as Lindsay Lohan and, more scandalously, a Republican party consultant who sent the GOP a bill for $1,900.
