A new 100-seat theatre is to open in Southampton this spring.

Stage Door will open in March on the site of the Cellar – the former cafe that regularly hosted music events.

The theatre, in the city’s cultural quarter, will host a mixture of plays, musicals and cabaret, and will operate alongside a speakeasy-themed restaurant and bar.

In-house productions and shows from visiting companies will be overseen by artistic director and founder Julianne Watling-McCarthy, who recognised there was “nothing like” the theatre in the city.

“We just wanted to create a venue where you could go and have your whole night there,” she said. “So you can have dinner and drinks, go up and see a show, and then come down for cocktails.”

The renovation of the venue will cost an estimated £150,000, of which £50,000 was awarded through local funding scheme Bridging the Gap funding scheme last year.

Now Curtain Call Award winner Adam Myers – who has run Music Theatre South as an amateur company for the past ten years – is to be heavily involved as an in-house producer.

He will be partnered by Winchester freelance theatre producer/director Sam Quested, 24.

Adam, 40, has earned huge acclaim for his work as both a director and actor and only last weekend scooped the award for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Edna in Hairspray.

Adam revealed that it was after watching that show that Julianne approached him about the project.

She wanted someone to be the producer of the venue’s musicals.

Adam told the Daily Echo: “It was a big ask – and very flattering.”

Fortunately he was able to bring his friend Sam Quested on board who has his own theatre company in Winchester.

“It was a case of two heads are better than one and we reached an agreement to produce 12 shows throughout the year. It’s really, really exciting.”

Adam has now set up a new ‘leg’ of the company called MTS Productions, and has partnered with Sam to head up this part of the company. They have an agreement to produce at least four musicals, a children’s summer show, and four smaller events at ‘The Stage Door’.

“As producers we might have to bring others in to direct. The first year will be about starting it and sustaining it. Full scale musicals will be our main thing and there will be cabaret and concert evenings with ‘songs from the shows’ and performances from various visiting companies.”

He added: “The whole thing about this is passion: we want it to be fun and embrace the arts.”