PLAY TIME
Hollywood’s Playhouse offers clubbers more than a pretty place to party.
By Kevin Capp | Club World
November 2009
The 13,000 square foot Playhouse has become a favorite spot for Hollywood celebs.
Since its opening in July, Playhouse has climbed Hollywood’s nightlife totem pole by delivering the kind of spectacle normally reserved for big studio movies and Las Vegas dance palaces. Designed by ICRAVE (L.A.’s Coco de Ville), the $6-million, 13,000-square-foot tri-level club cum “performance venue” is housed in the old Fox Theatre and features “versatile, truss-based lighting” by Steve Lieberman, of SJ Lighting, and a “customized” Funktion One sound system by Dan Agne, of Sound Investment, both of whom have been honored with Club World Award wins.
Although Playhouse has its requisite Tinsel Town tabloid act down, regularly attracting A-list celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio and David Beckham, it’s the club’s diverse schedule of weekly events and unique take on service that help it stand apart from the Hollywood herd, which is often typified by unearned and vaguely defined exclusivity.
The venue’s programming includes “Playhouse Thursdays,” with DJs Vice, Echo, and Eric Cubeechee, and “Dirty Sexy House” on Fridays with a rotating cast of Miami- and NYC based jocks and resident Politik. In addition to quality deck talent providing a cross-genre soundtrack, Playhouse boasts servers, garbed in costumes designed by Kelly Nishimoto, who moonlight as trapeze artists, aerialists, and burlesque dancers—something not even Vegas’ Studio 54 offers.
Credit the industry vets behind Muse Lifestyle Group with all that flash. The heads of the L.A.-based company—nightlife guru Rob Vinokur (Crobar NYC) and film producer Elie Samaha (The Whole Nine Yards)—have put their collective experience to good use by creating a club that doubles as an attraction.
We caught up with Vinokur to talk about the Playhouse vision (hint: change is good), its accompanying eatery Sweet Love Hangover, and luring celebrity clientele in Hollywood.
How did opening Playhouse differ from your previous projects?
Playhouse was a labor of love; it took us over four years and $6 million to take the building from an abandoned theater to a first-class venue.
How did your previous experiences help you to successfully open Playhouse?
Experience in this business is invaluable. I’ve learned from my successes but even more from my failures.
Talk about the club’s location and why you decided this was the spot to build Playhouse.
The Fox Theatre is located in the heart of Hollywood and was a historic theater with amazing ceiling heights and acoustics. So it was perfect for our vision of quality sound combined with production.
What was your vision for Playhouse, both in terms of design and systems?
Create [a] unique nightlife experience, and bring quality sound and production into a more intimate venue. Playhouse has some pretty unique promotions.
What prompted you to go in this direction, and how has it worked out so far?
Again, we wanted to take a different approach [and] create something that’s unique and constantly changing. At the same time, we wanted to create more of a family atmosphere that starts with the staff and is extended both to regular guests and to first-timers.
Many nightlife companies are now combining dining and club experiences. To that end, what was the thinking behind Sweet Love Hangover? How does the restaurant complement the club?
[Sweet Love Hangover] is a completely separate entity. It extends Playhouse’s hospitality but is very casual, fun, and quirky. It’s an all-day eatery with a late- night attitude. Playhouse is now recognized as the hottest club in Hollywood.
How did you ascend up the chain so rapidly in such a competitive market, and how do you plan to stay there?
There are a lot of amazing clubs in Hollywood, and we just hope to continue making Playhouse a unique experience that brings people back.
What downside is there to being the most popular club, whether in Hollywood or Miami?
You can’t always accommodate everyone, even though you really wish you could. This is a big and costly project by any standard. But in this economy it seems particularly risky.
What gave you the confidence to go ahead with it at this time?
We believe in the brand we’ve created, and we plan on being a part of Hollywood for many years to come.
How important is it for a Hollywood-based club to attract celebrity clientele? And how did you and your team set about making sure celebs came to Playhouse?
We created a product people like, and we love that people from all walks of life want to come and be a part of it.
What qualities were you looking for in the DJs that you hired?
It’s all about the energy and the vibe they create. The DJ for the main room is on stage, so they have to be able to perform.
What other projects do you have lined up?
We have two new projects opening two blocks away on Ivar that we’re planning to open in 2010.
Team Playhouse
Owners:Rob Vinokur, Elie Samaha, and Mike Israyelyan
Sound: Steve Lieberman of SJ Lighting
Lighting: Dan Agne of Sound Investment
Interior Design: Lionel Ohayon of ICRAVE
THEATRICAL LIGHTING
29 – ETC Source Four PARS with lens kits
22 – Elation Design Spot 300 Pro moving lights
12 – Elation Opti TriPar LED PAR cans
8 – Martin Professional Atomic 3000 strobe lights
6 – Stage Spot ProCan 4-Lite audience blinders
4 – Martin Professional Wizard Extremes effects lights
4 – Elation Opti Tri 30 LED PAR can-truss toners
4 – ETC Source Four Lekos 26°
1 – MA Lighting GrandMA Ultralight Series 2 lighting console
1 – Martin Professional Jem K1 hazer
1 – Custom truss system
1 – Custom motor system with control
Original article written in Club World Magazine or view a PDF.