On The Box

A review in The New York Times this past February described The Box thus: "A pedigreed crew is behind this surrealistic dinner-theater on the Lower East Side. Owners include Simon Hammerstein, the 28-year-old grandson of Oscar;
Randy Weiner, the “Donkey Show’’ writer; and Serge Becker, the night life impresario. The actors Jude Law and Rachel Weisz sit on the board of the opera house-cum-concert saloon. The entertainment will be eccentric: Thai fighters one night and opera singers in Mexican wrestling masks the next."

Dinner and a table from which to watch the nightly show that begins at 1am costs $125, or you can stand for a more affordable $25.

Currently on at the Box, however, is the rather uninspired and cliched show called Pandora. It’s hosted by a former Cirque Du Soleil star, MC Raven O, and boasts variety acts that are billed to be in the spirit of Ziegfeld and Busby Berkley. All that translated into rather average burlesque interspersed with a magician, a lasso champion, and a fire eater. And then there was this: overly raunchy, S&M-style acts thrown in, I would imagine, to shock. I’m no prude, so trust me when I say that they were simply not sexy even though they featured full male and female nudity. One saw MC Raven O, wearing nothing but a pig’s snout and a white blood-smeared butcher’s apron, masturbate (yes, really) and snort like a pig as a trapeze artist did the splits above his head. In another, a large woman in a leather waist-corset -- and nothing else -- pulled out a butcher's knife and ran it through her lips, spattering fake blood onto her fetish-sized breasts. The rowdy and rather drunk crowd roared their approval leaving me to wonder about the American psyche.
When it comes to sexual violence or humiliation – even if it’s make-believe – I’ve discovered I’m a Mother Grundy. If instead of Dita von Teese spinning about in a cocktail glass there’s going to be a bloody Marilyn Manson-style scene, shouldn’t there be some sort of disclaimer?

By Nadine Rubin. A version of this appeared as my Made in Manhattan column in the South African Sunday Times.