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"  &amp;quot;Have you been to The Box yet?&amp;quot; - I&amp;#039;ve lost count of how many times I&amp;#039;ve heard this over the past month or so. The Box, located in the heart of Soho&amp;#039;s red light district and modestly titled as &amp;#039;the theatre of varieties&amp;#039;, seems to be on everyone&amp;#039;s lips at the moment. And it&amp;#039;s no surprise.  The Box opened in Manhattan, New York, in 2007 and quickly earned itself a reputation as one of the most exclusive and hottest places to be seen. Tales of debauchery and all manner of oddities were told, but no real information was ever given about what really went on inside, and endless A-list celebrities were seen stumbling from its doors on a regular basis. Since it&amp;#039;s inception The Box has become something of a cult hit amongst high circles in NYC... so it was simply a matter of time before The Box crossed the pond to settle in London.  Setting up home in the former Raymond Revue bar in Soho, a theatre and strip club that opened in the 1950&amp;#039;s and quickly became famous for being the only venue that offered full-frontal, onstage nudity of it&amp;#039;s kind, it&amp;#039;s setting is simply perfect.  Opening here in February, they&amp;#039;ve made it more than clear that The Box doesn&amp;#039;t let just anyone in. With a very strict door policy and fiendishly expensive table prices starting anywhere between one and three thousand, this isn&amp;#039;t a venue for your average Joe. Celebrities seen falling out of their doors have included Kate Moss, Kelly Brook, Mark Ronson, Lily Cole and even royals including Prince Harry and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie (hmm, wonder what the queen would think about that, eh). A recent journalist wrote a scathing report on his visit to The Box, calling it &amp;#039;the most sexually explicit show in town&amp;#039; and labeling the performance as &amp;#039;hardcore pornography of the most repulsive kind&amp;#039;, leaving him sickened. But then why, I wondered, does it attract so many high profile revelers - there simply must be more to it than gratuitous sex shows. Having heard so much good stuff about The Box and then seeing this attack on the infamous club, it really intrigued me, so when my friend said he could get us on the list for a Wednesday night I was a definite yes. After all, I like to make up my own mind. With a strictly glamourous dress code and the worry that the doorman might take one look at me and tell me to run along home, I slipped into my most appropriate attire - a corseted black leather dress and black patent sky-scraping platform heels, finished off with scarlet red lipstick and lashes long enough to work up the guster to power half of London through wind energy. Upon entering the infamous wooden doors, every misconception of a seedy, back-alley club is gone. We were led up a spiraling, grand wooden staircase by a beautiful, and overly friendly &amp;#039;hostess&amp;#039; to the main auditorium, which was intimate and beautifully decorated, a happy cross between a 1950s gentlemans club and an old Victorian music hall. This was where it all happens, and we took up a spot at the bar. We&amp;#039;d arrived at around 11:30pm and whilst the club was beginning to fill up, it wasn&amp;#039;t rammed. Fast-forward half an hour and people were pouring into the main room and securing a good spot. For a Wednesday night it was a very impressive turn-out. Looking round, every one of the booths were taken, with groups sipping on anything from erotic-themed cocktails and the finest Patron, to oversized bottles of Don Perignon worth hundreds, or maybe even thousands, of pounds. The crowd wasn&amp;#039;t what I expected either - yes, there were lots of models, even some that I recognized from big campaigns, and there were also lots of sloaney &amp;#039;raah&amp;#039; types, but everyone was friendly, happy and free of pretension, drinking, laughing and dancing on the tables. Hey, even James Corden was there, up dancing on the tables and talking to everyone. The show itself started not long after 12:30am. The topless MC, Ravon O, entered the stage flanked by barely-dressed and beautiful girls, to a roar from the crowd, many of whom had obviously been here before. Ravon O has come over from the New York club to take charge of it&amp;#039;s new London sister-club and is a natural, commentating off-stage and comparing between acts.  There were four &amp;#039;shows&amp;#039; in total throughout the rest of the evening, each lasting around 20 minutes and containing four acts, separated by 15 minute breaks (where guests were straight up on the table dancingagain, I admired their energy for a school night). After reading the previously mentioned scathing article, I had prepared myself to be utterly shocked, but what I saw was far from &amp;#039;hardcore pornography&amp;#039; by any means. Yes there were all manners of risqu\u00E9 cabaret-style acts with some, but not all, containing full-on nudity or acts of a sexual nature, but it was all good slap-stick fun and the crowd roared with approval rather than disgust. Saying that, I won&amp;#039;t pretend that I didn&amp;#039;t watch some of the acts a-gawp, the shock factor was most definitely there, but surely that&amp;#039;s why you&amp;#039;d go. From men wearing pig masks chasing half-naked girls with fire (yep, it really was as bizarre as it sounds) to girls dancing, stripping or singing on stage, to... well I don&amp;#039;t want to give too much away but every aspect of a risqu\u00E9 cabaret was covered. And then some. I think the allure of this place is the mystery which enshrouds it - only those with an enquisitive nature will seek further, should they want to see for themselves. The brain behind The Box is British-born, public schoolboy Simon Hammerstein, who boasts his club is a place of &amp;#039;mystique, mystery and sexual openess&amp;#039;, and he isn&amp;#039;t wrong. It is indeed a variety show with well-polished acts and a lot of nudity and I would hasten to add that this is definitely NOT for the faint-hearted or those who would consider themselves the slightest of prudes. But if you&amp;#039;re young, open-minded and know what you&amp;#039;re going for (and you&amp;#039;ve got a wadge of cash to burn on drinks), then I see nothing wrong with The Box. After all, every person in the place was having a wail of a time and, in this day and age, all it takes is one simple click of a mouse to view much, much worse on the internet. Not only that, but I had a good chance to chat to some of the hostesses and performers and they all absolutely loved working there, loved performing, and thoroughly enjoyed the audience&amp;#039;s response, and that counts for a lot. I can understand why some people might be offended by this, but then you wouldn&amp;#039;t go somewhere with such a reputation if you&amp;#039;re easily offended.  And would I go back? Yes I definitely would, even if just to take some of my girlfriends to witness it first hand. Sometimes you just need a night free of inhibitions - and The Box more than provides this. Click here to visit The Box Soho website To keep up with what I&amp;#039;m doing between posts, you can follow me on Twitter: @katperriam N.B. The Box Soho offers a very strict no camera or camera-phone policy, so apologies for the lack of snaps - I&amp;#039;ll leave that to the imagination! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/more/a451/the-box-soho-theatre-of-varieties/>