17/09/2026
📢 A NEW CHAPTER… "UNHINGED" 🚪
For nearly 12 years, these four walls have seen absolutely everything! Since 2015, The Stage Door has been Southampton’s finest fringe venue and ultimate home for the weird, the wonderful, and the completely chaotic. From amazing theatre, jaw-dropping cabaret to legendary adult pantos, and more spilled glitter than any Henry Hoover could ever vacuum up! And the history didn't start there... before The Stage Door, the venue was home to the iconic Soul Cellar that opened in 2001...
But behind the scenes, running a physical venue takes a lot of heavy lifting. Over the years, we've spent way too much time fighting with broken boilers, dealing with building maintenance, and drowning in boring admin. Darlings, quite frankly, it’s been draining the creative juices right out of what we actually live for: making brilliant, unforgettable theatre!
So, we’ve made a massive executive decision and in 2027 we're officially becoming UNHINGED from our venue constraints and transforming into a full-time production company! 🎉
So, just to be clear, this is not the final curtain. It’s a new beginning! We are officially pouring 100% of our passion, drama, and energy exactly where it belongs - into the scripts, the casting, and the shows themselves!
We will actually be staying inside our beloved building for now as our day-to-day operations and creative workshops will still be run from there. However, our massive main-stage productions are getting wings! We’re taking our signature madness out on the road to stages across the region, including the fabulous Mayflower Studios!
WE STILL NEED YOUR BEAUTIFUL BUMS ON SEATS NOW! 🍑
We are definitely not slipping away quietly! We have a stellar lineup of amazing productions locked in for the rest of 2026, so please come fill up those seats while you still can! 🤗
Then, it’s time for the ultimate send-off. Our final official venue event will be an epic New Year’s Eve Bash! Hosted by our 3 favourite queens Aura Jay, Dawn the Drag Queen and Clare Deloon 💃🕺 Come have a drink, share a laugh, catch a final show in the space, and say a nostalgic goodbye to the venue as it was. Let's toast to growing into what we can be! 🥂
HELP CLOSE THIS CHAPTER: THE 2027 MEMORY BOOK
We want to keep these wild nights immortalised forever. We need you to flood the comments with your top memories, backstage gossip, and favorite photos! Every single story and photo you share will be collected to create a special Memory Booklet in 2027 to memorialise the end of a truly legendary era. To keep the memories coming, we’ll be back on Thursdays with a memory drop of our own, because we love an excuse to reminisce! Let’s document every single drop of the magnificent madness that these four walls have witnessed before the concrete starts talking! 📸
A personal, heartfelt thank you to all of our past performers, writers, musicians, staff, volunteers, backstage crews and wonderful audiences - for the laughs, the cheers, and some truly wild, unhinged nights. The building might be closing as a performance venue, but the show must go on, because... Life is a Cabaret Old Chum! Love and sparkles from Julianne, Jason and James xx
