(Photo: Patrick McMullan)

Simon Hammerstein, owner of the Box, hosted a benefit at the racy cabaret last week for his mother’s charity, Only Make Believe, which brings theater to kids in hospitals. The night’s show featured a dancing vagina, but Hammerstein insists his mom, Dena, was delighted. “She approves where I think she should disapprove,” he says. “She’s seen it all.” Dena, however, suggests she’s less tolerant than her son thinks. “I don’t know if scandalized is the right word,” she says. “But some things I feel are more than a mother need see.” Still, she’s a regular: “I’ve become the adopted mother for a lot of the performers. Maybe because I go to the Box, and their mothers don’t.”

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• Archive: “Intelligencer”
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• Table of Contents: Nov 10, 2008 issue of New York | Subscribe!