Randy Weiner (born March 10, 1965) is an American playwright, producer and theater and nightclub owner. Weiner co-wrote the

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

musical ''The Donkey Show'' and, as one-third of EMURSIVE, produced the

Drama Desk Award The Drama Desk Award is an annual prize recognizing excellence in New York theatre. First bestowed in 1955 as the Vernon Rice Award, the prize initially honored Off-Broadway productions, as well as Off-off-Broadway, and those in the vicinity. Fo ...

winning New York premiere of Punchdrunk's '' Sleep No More''. He is co-owner of

NYC New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

"theater of varieties" The Box and

The Box Soho The Box Soho is a cabaret nightclub located at 11-12 Walker's Court in Soho, London, on the premises formerly occupied by the Raymond Revuebar. Opening and ownership Opened on 9 February 2011, it bills itself as a "theatre of varieties" and is ...

. Weiner is the creator of ''Queen of the Night'' at the

Paramount Hotel The Paramount Hotel (formerly the Century-Paramount Hotel) is a hotel in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States. Designed by architect Thomas W. Lamb, the hotel is at 235 West 46th Street, between Eighth Av ...

in New York City, and recently served as the dramaturge for

Cirque du Soleil Cirque du Soleil (, ; "Circus of the Sun" or "Sun Circus") is a Canadian entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. Located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul on 16 Ju ...

's ''

Amaluna ''Amaluna'' was a touring show by Cirque du Soleil. It was created and directed by Diane Paulus and is loosely inspired by '' The Tempest'' by William Shakespeare. It opened in Montréal, Quebec, Canada, on April 19, 2012. The cast is 70% female ...

''. Randy was named one of Modern Luxury Manhattan's 75 Most Influential People In The Arts.

Personal life

Weiner was born Edward Randall Weiner, the son of a New York banker and lawyer. He graduated

cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. On October 1, 1995, he married fellow theater arts graduate

Diane Paulus Diane Marie Paulus (born 1966) is an American theater and opera director who is currently the Terrie and Bradley Bloom Artistic Director of the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University.Colleen Walsh"Paulus reaches beyond boards" ''Harvar ...

Career

Weiner and Paulus along with a few other theater school graduates established a small theater troupe in New York City called ''Project 400 Theatre Group''.Colleen Walsh
"Paulus reaches beyond boards"
''Harvard Gazette'', 23 April 2009 With Project 400, Weiner and Paulus specialized in creating

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

musical productions which married classic theater and modern music.Eric V. Copage
"Not Your Mother's Musical, and That's the Point"
''The New York Times'', 6 September 1999 These included a rock version of '' The Tempest'', an R&B ''

Phaedra Phaedra may refer to: Mythology * Phaedra (mythology), Cretan princess, daughter of Minos and Pasiphaë, wife of Theseus Arts and entertainment * ''Phaedra'' (Alexandre Cabanel), an 1880 painting Film * ''Phaedra'' (film), a 1962 film by ...

'' and a hip-hop ''

Lohengrin Lohengrin () is a character in German Arthurian literature. The son of Parzival (Percival), he is a knight of the Holy Grail sent in a boat pulled by swans to rescue a maiden who can never ask his identity. His story, which first appears in Wolf ...

''. In collaboration with Paulus, Weiner co-created '' The Donkey Show'', a

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...

adaptation of ''

A Midsummer Night’s Dream ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a comedy written by William Shakespeare 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict amon ...

'' which ran off-Broadway from 1999 to 2005 and was revived in 2009 for Paulus' first production as director of the

American Repertory Theater The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) is a professional not-for-profit theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1979 by Robert Brustein, the A.R.T. is known for its commitment to new American plays and music–theater explorations; to ne ...

. Critics cited the production as an exemplary of a trend in which edgy avant-garde theater had become fashionably mainstream. In February 2007, Weiner cofounded (with partners

Richard Kimmel Richard Kimmel is a New York City-based theatre director, writer, and theatrical producer. He is executive director of The Box, a venue for theater, music, and nightlife in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and artistic director of Cannon Co ...

and Simon Hammerstein) the Box theater on the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. The cabaret theater has drawn attention for its risque burlesque acts. In September 2009, Weiner and Hammerstein announced the opening of Purgatorio, a temporary Halloween-season nightclub with a macabre sex-based theme. In January 2014, Weiner and partner

Aby Rosen Aby or ABY may refer to: Places * Aby, Ivory Coast * Aby Lagoon, a lagoon in Ivory Coast * Abyy or Aby, Sakha Republic, Russia ** Aby Lowland * Aby, Lincolnshire, a village in England, UK * Åby, Norrköping Municipality, Sweden * Åby, Växjö Mun ...

unveiled the

Diamond Horseshoe ''Diamond Horseshoe'' (also billed as ''Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe'') is a 1945 Technicolor musical film starring Betty Grable and Dick Haymes, directed by George Seaton, and released by 20th Century Fox. It was filmed in Billy Rose's Diam ...

supper club in midtown Manhattan. Once presided over by legendary nightlife impresario

Billy Rose Billy Rose (born William Samuel Rosenberg; September 6, 1899 – February 10, 1966) was an American impresario, theatrical showman and lyricist. For years both before and after World War II, Billy Rose was a major force in entertainment, with sh ...

, the venue has undergone a $20 million renovation and plays host to Weiner's latest immersive spectacle, ''Queen of the Night''. Weiner has served on the Advisory Committee on the Arts at

.''Practice & Performance: The Guide to the Arts at Harvard''
Harvard University, 20th Edition, 2003/4 He has guest lectured on theater arts at Columbia University, Barnard College, New York University, and Yale.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weiner, Randy 1965 births Living people American dramatists and playwrights Harvard University alumni