Who

Theater scion Simon Hammerstein is an off-off Broadway director and the founder of achingly hip Lower East Side nightlife venue The Box.

Backstory

Hammerstein has quite the theatrical pedigree: His great-great-grandfather, Oscar Hammerstein I, built the Manhattan Opera House—now the Hammerstein Ballroom—and the London Opera House; and his grandfather, Oscar Hammerstein II, wrote The Sound of Music and Oklahoma. Simon himself is the son of late theater producer/director James Hammerstein and British actress/playwright Geraldine Sherman. He was born in the UK, grew up New York, put in time at an English boarding school, and gave up on his education at age 16 to work as a stagehand. By 22, he'd set up his own production company and was a resident director at the Actors Studio. He's since directed a number of off-Broadway plays including The Passion of George Bush and Trueblinka, but lately he's better known for his forays into the debauched world of the city's club scene.

In February 2007 Hammerstein opened The Box, a "theater dining" club at a former sign factory in Freeman's Alley. It took 16 months and $1 million to give the space the look of a hundred-year-old theater crossed with a crumbling speakeasy. Hammerstein's partners in the venture are playwright Randy Weiner, writer/director/producer Richard Kimmel and nightlife entrepreneur Serge Becker, while the club's celeb "board members" include Jude Law, Josh Lucas, and Rachel Weisz.

Personal

The bearded Hammerstein is currently engaged. He lives in the financial district, in a loft he bought for $1.27 million in 2008.