Welcome to The Plaza Theatre, Romsey, the home of RAODS. An art deco venue with bucketfuls of character.
Close to Southampton, Salisbury and Winchester, the Plaza Theatre is perfectly situated to serve a large local community. Romsey Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society (RAODS) owns and operates The Plaza Theatre. Located between Southampton, Salisbury and Winchester, in the heart of Wessex, the Plaza Theatre is perfectly situated to serve the Test Valley's entertainment and arts needs. Smaller but
more intimate than the nearby Mayflower, Nuffield and Playhouse theatres, the Plaza offers Pantomime, Musicals, Operetta, Drama, Dance, Youth productions and Live Music. The Plaza is a member of the Little Theatre Guild of Great Britain. RAODS is a member of NODA - the National Operatic and Dramatic Association. For membership information, please email [email protected]. If you are under-18 and interested in joining our Youth Group, please email [email protected]
26/01/2025
The forthcoming Comedy Club night, this coming Friday, has a new, exciting lineup!
Joining headliner Dominic Holland will be Canadian surrealist superstar, Tony Law!
Also on the bill, Fiona Ridgewell and your MC for the evening, Justin Panks.
A reminder that the lineup may be subject to change. All tickets purchased are to attend the comedy club and not to see particular artists. On the rare occasion an artist does cancel the promoter will always find a replacement of a similar standard. Unfortunately we are unable to issue refunds for changes to the lineup. Full terms and conditions are available at www.chuckl.co.uk/termsandconditions
20/01/2025
For anyone coming to see Snow White this Friday or Saturday...
On the 23rd, 24th and 25th of January, a section of Romsey's Bypass Road will be closed to traffic. So if you are coming to visit the theatre in that time, it is best to get to us via the A3057 from Stockbridge, or the A3090 from Wi******er, or the A27/A3057 road in from North Baddesley/Rownhams.
Please AVOID coming in via the A27 from Salisbury, or the A3090 from Ower. And enjoy the show!
09/01/2025
NEW YEAR – NEW HOBBY...?
The Plaza Theatre in Romsey is one of the largest, and most successful, volunteer-owned and run theatres in the country. We have just completed an £800,000 building project – and we are now looking for more volunteers to help us run the 100 performances each year to 15,000+ audience members. There are lots of different jobs that volunteers can get involved in, but right now we are particularly looking for:
Front of House – ushers, bars, kiosk, box office. Front of House membership is entirely free (and you get to see shows for free too!) but you have to do at least ten Front of House duties each year.
Set builders/painters – we put on 12 in-house productions every year, and they need sets (and props) to be designed, built and painted/wall-papered. We have our own large and fully equipped workshop – and no previous experience is necessary! To do this you need to be a Full Member (which entitles you to do any of the jobs available, including acting) and this costs just £36 a year.
Interested? We are an active and sociable group, and watching an audience leave the Plaza with big grins on their faces – knowing that you played your part in making that happen – is a great feeling. You can email me at [email protected] to find out more. Or you can simply sign up by going to www.plazatheatre.com and clicking on the MEMBERS tab at the top of the screen.
I look forward to meeting you!
Neil Gwynne
RAODS Chairman
01/01/2025
A very Happy New Year to all our customers and hirers. All the best wishes for 2025!
28/12/2024
Just a quick reminder that we're deleting our X/Twitter account tomorrow (29th Dec). You can continue to follow us here on Facebook, or over on Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/plazatheatre.com).
Maybe this year we'll even get Instagram working!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of our customers. Here's a reminder of the RAODS shows that we have brought you in 2024!
🎄🦌🎅
22/12/2024
21/12/2024
Social media news:
We've decided to leave X/Twitter by the end of the year.
You can still follow us here on Facebook, and we have setup a base over on Bluesky where you can find us as .com
12/12/2024
A brilliant night of comedy at the Plaza with Matt Adlington, Toussaint Douglass, Prakash Jirjadhun, and headliner, Laura Lexx.
09/12/2024
🎉 It’s MSB Christmas Show day at last! 🎉
The stage is set and we are primed to bring you two nights bursting with Christmas fun! We can’t wait to see you all in the beautiful Plaza Theatre Romsey!
06/12/2024
We're in the paper, ma!
'Curtain up at theatre' - Play is nod to the past 📰 Tomorrow's front page by the Romsey Advertiser
Don't forget to buy your copy!
04/12/2024
2 returned tickets for tonight’s (Wednesday) Pirates of Penzance are available now via our website
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Videos
Plaza Theatre Romsey Wins Tripadvisor Travellers’ Choice Award 2024
Plaza Theatre Romsey is pleased to announce today that it has been recognized in Tripadivsor’s® Travellers’ Choice® Awards for 2024. The award honours businesses that consistently earn great reviews, placing them among the top 10% of listings around the world on Tripadvisor.
As the world’s largest travel guidance platform, Tripadvisor has unparalleled authority with travelers and diners. This award is based on genuine feedback from anyone in the community who has visited and left an authentic, first-hand review on Tripadvisor over a 12-month period, making it a valuable and trustworthy designation of great places to visit.
“Congratulations to Plaza Theatre on its recognition in Tripadvisor’s Travellers’ Choice Awards for 2024,” said John Boris, Chief Growth Officer at Tripadvisor. “Travellers’ Choice honors businesses that consistently demonstrate a commitment to hospitality excellence. This means you have made such a memorable impact on your visitors that many of them took the time to go online and leave a great review about their experience. People rely on Tripadvisor’s Travellers’ Choice seal to help them navigate the myriad of things to see, eat and do across the globe. We hope this recognition continues to drive business to you in 2024 and beyond.”
Check out all the reviews and discover more about the Plaza Theatre here: https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g503839-d3431357-Reviews-Plaza_Theatre-Romsey_Hampshire_England.html
Here we are at St Leonard's church in Sherfield English for our 2nd show of the mini tour of Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised]. There are tickets available on the door. Show starts at 7pm!
Things I Know To Be True - a play by Andrew Bovell.
7th to 11th May, 2024
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/plazatheatre/things-i-know-to-be-true/e-kdvygg
A complex and intense portrait of the mechanics of a family – and a marriage – through the eyes of four siblings struggling to define themselves beyond their parents' love and expectations.
THINGS I KNOW TO BE TRUE will be performed at the Plaza Theatre Romsey from the 7th - 11th May 2024.
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/plazatheatre/things-i-know-to-be-true/e-kdvygg
This is a great play with lots of physical theatre and is set to take you on an emotional rollercoaster.
It is also on the GSCE set text and will be great for anyone studying drama or dance.
Things I Know To Be True Promo 1
Things I Know To Be True By Andrew Bovell
A RAODS Production
7th - 11th May 2024
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/plazatheatre/things-i-know-to-be-true/e-kdvygg
Things I Know To Be True is about love in many of its forms. A complex and intense portrait of the mechanics of a family – and a marriage – through the eyes of four siblings struggling to define themselves beyond their parents' love and expectations. At times comforting and supportive. At others suffocating and destructive. But always love.
12th to 16th March - One Man, Two Guvnors By Richard Bean
Francis Henshall becomes minder to Roscoe, a small time East End hood. Francis spots the chance of an extra meal ticket and takes a second job with one Stanley Stubbers. To prevent discovery, Francis must keep his two guvnors apart, with hilarious consequences!
BOOK NOW: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/plazatheatre/one-man-two-guvnors/e-orgpom
Romsey Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society (RAODS) owns and operates The Plaza Theatre. Located between Southampton, Salisbury and Wi******er, the Plaza Theatre is perfectly situated to serve the southern Test Valley's entertainment and arts needs. An art deco venue with bucketfuls of character, the Plaza offers Pantomime, Musicals, Operetta, Comedy, Drama, Dance, Youth productions and Live Music.
The Plaza was built in 1931 as a cinema and the theatre facade is characteristic of Art Deco. The date was confirmed by the presence of a newspaper which was used to line the shuttering when the undersides of the main staircases were formed - extracts of a March 1931 edition of 'John Bull' magazine are preserved and legible!
When the cinema closed, the building was used for several years as a bingo hall, until that closed in the early 1980s.
The price of the empty theatre was £150,000 - a daunting figure at the time. However the building was purchased and alterations undertaken to provide a 246 seat theatre with technical and audience facilities. Over the course of 2 years many hours were put in by RAODS members to convert it to the Theatre you see today.
The Plaza was built as a 400 seat cinema with a balcony, and stalls below - the reconstruction lifted the stage and auditorium, creating a single rake of audience seating and making available space on the ground floor for dressing rooms and a Green Room. A stage door and scene dock were added to the rear of the building.
Further improvements since then include: addition of workshop and car park in 1989; award winning disabled facilities in the early 1990s (including removal of 15 seats); new roof in 1997; air conditioning in 2005; Green Room refurbishment (creating a second 'studio' performance space) in 2009; new chairlift in 2010; refurbishment of dressing rooms and all public areas (excepting the auditorium) in 2011/12; refurbishment of public toilets and installation of a state of the art fire alarm system in 2015; and refurbishment of the main auditorium in 2017.
In addition to their own shows, the Plaza is made available by RAODS to community hires - schools, dance schools, local societies - and professional acts, including an increasing number of 'tribute' bands.
