Randy Weiner

Weiner was born Edward Randall Weiner, the son of a New York banker and lawyer. He graduated cum laude from Harvard University. On October 1, 1995, he married fellow theater arts graduate Diane Paulus.^[3]

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.^[4][5] With Project 400, Weiner and Paulus specialized in creating avant-garde musical productions which married classic theater and modern music.^[6] These included a rock version of The Tempest, an R&B Phaedra and a hip-hop Lohengrin.^[6]

In collaboration with Paulus, Weiner co-created The Donkey Show, a disco adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream which ran off-Broadway from 1999 to 2005 and was revived in 2009 for Paulus' first production as director of the American Repertory Theater.^[7] Critics cited the production as an exemplary of a trend in which edgy avant-garde theater had become fashionably mainstream.^[8]

In February 2007, Weiner cofounded (with partners Richard Kimmel and Simon Hammerstein) the Box theater on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.^[9] The cabaret theater has drawn attention for its risque burlesque acts.^[10]

In January 2014, Weiner and partner Aby Rosen unveiled the Diamond Horseshoe supper club in midtown Manhattan. Once presided over by legendary nightlife impresario Billy Rose, the venue has undergone a $20 million renovation and plays host to Weiner's latest immersive spectacle, Queen of the Night.

In April 2023, Weiner opened The Stranger, a ground-breaking new nightlife experience, that was heralded by Time Out as the best new night life venue in New York for 2023.^[11]

In 2025, again collaborating with Paulus, Weiner co-created and executive produced Masquerade, an immersive production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. Masquerade opened on September 29, 2025, running eight weekly performances in addition to frequent nightlife programming under the sub-brand Masquerade Nocturne.^[12] He has guest lectured on theater arts at Columbia University, Barnard College, New York University, and Yale.^{[citation needed]}