Simon Hammerstein (foreground) cleans up his act with the cast of “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812,” for which he’s created a sexy new Meatpacking home. (Jemal Countes)
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Simon Hammerstein hates that he’s constantly boxed in by, well, the Box — his famously indulgent Lower East Side “theatre of varieties,” known for its crass acts such as “Queen Laqueefa,” a woman who sings from her vagina, and bottle-service-loving guests like Lindsay Lohan and Leonardo DiCaprio.
“I’m so pigeonholed by the Box,” Hammerstein jokingly complains Thursday night, his beard trimmed and his suit snug.
But with the opening in two days of his buzzy new Russian supper club, which will house a hit theater production, the 35-year-old nightlife dynamo is transforming himself into a bona fide patron of the arts. And one befitting his pedigree: Hammerstein’s grandfather was musical mastermind Oscar Hammerstein II of “The Sound of Music” fame, and his great-great-grandfather founded Hammerstein Ballroom.
After “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812” got rave reviews for its run at Ars Nova last fall, the show’s new producers reached out to Hammerstein and his Box partner, Randy Weiner, 48. The producers wanted a splashy new home for the show, which in its original setting offered bottles of vodka and platters of dumplings to patrons, cabaret-style. And so the man who New York magazine once dubbed the “impresario of smut” came to host the opera, inspired by “War and Peace.”
“I thought [‘Comet’] was a beautifully executed show and . . . would lend itself to being blown up,” says Hammerstein, who created Kazino, a temporary, tented 6,000-square-foot Russian supper club in a vacant Meatpacking District lot next to the High Line for the $2.5 million venture.
The red-velvet-curtained den of decadence will offer a full bar and meal for showgoers (there’s even a theatrical “dumpling parade” before the second act) through Sept. 1.
Already, curious stiletto-clad ladies have been lining up outside of Kazino from nearby hot spots like the Top of the Standard.
“Straight-up theater is not really what I do,” says Hammerstein, who says that the Box and his work with “Comet” both fall on the same continuum.
“With [‘Comet’], for us, it was, ‘How do you transport a show into a place where younger, nontheatrical kind of crowds are going to go and be intrigued?’ ”
But while he prides himself on modernizing the theatrical art form, England-born Hammerstein still respects the past.
He says his risqué downtown spot the Box, which opened in February 2007, wasn’t an act of defiance but rather an homage to his roots.
“My great-great-grandfather was doing boudoir 100 years ago — so, in fact, it’s pretty traditional,” he says. “I’m really boring. I didn’t rebel. You know, I followed in the family footsteps. I’m lame that way.”
He holds on tight to words of advice passed down from his father (a theater director) and grandfather including, “Don’t cast children or animals and never put two bald people on the stage at the same time.”
He’ll heed that wisdom come this fall — Hammerstein says he’s directing a new show, in addition to teaming up with Weiner for a secret “mind-boggling” theater-nightlife hybrid in Times Square.
And there is that chatter of bringing “Comet” — complete with supper club — to Broadway.
But just because you’ve taken the boy out of the club, doesn’t mean you can take the club out of the boy.
While tickets to “Comet” are priced from $125 to $175, there’s an option for a $5,000 “tzar table” for eight that comes with a private booth, caviar, champagne and a seafood tower.
And, yes, there will also be a boozy over-the-top Sunday brunch.
“Well, we built a beautiful Russian supper club. So it seemed silly not to create a Russian-themed brunch party when the opera is not using the space during that time,” explains Hammerstein.
When “Comet” is dark, Kazino will be open to the public for libations and not-too-racy vaudeville and cabaret performances with a twist (Tuesdays through Fridays, 4 to 7 p.m.; Saturdays, 3 to 7 p.m.; Sundays, 4 to 9 p.m.; $20 cover charge, kazinonyc.com).
Think illusionists, a harmonica beat-boxer, sexy stilt walkers and “Cosack” break dancers.
Just make sure, if you don’t have a ticket (or “tzar table”) to “Comet,” you have a name to drop to get into Hammerstein’s latest spectacle.
“Yes, there will be a doorman,” says Hammerstein, ever the red-rope aficionado.
So, how tough will Kazino’s door be?
“Depends who’s asking.”