West End Gala to Raise £100,000 to Secure the Future of The Phoenix Arts Club, One of London’s Last Independent Arts Venues

One of London’s last remaining independent performance venues is calling on the industry and the public to help secure its future.

On Monday 20 April 2026, a major West End Gala will take place at the Phoenix Theatre to raise £100,000 for The Phoenix Arts Club CIC (12774130), ensuring the continuation of one of central London’s most important homes for cabaret, musical theatre, comedy and queer performance.

Founded in 1988 and located beneath the Phoenix Theatre, The Phoenix Arts Club has, for nearly four decades, provided a meeting place and performance platform for theatre workers, creatives and audiences. Since taking over the venue 15 years ago from Soho character Maurice Huggett, Colin Savage and Ken Wright have transformed what was once a modest theatre bar into one of London’s busiest cabaret and variety spaces, presenting over 400 performances a year.

Today, despite an annual turnover exceeding £1.8 million, the organisation faces a structural shortfall of £100,000 per year — a gap driven not by lack of demand, but by the mounting pressures facing small, independent cultural venues in central London.

The West End Gala will showcase the breadth of talent that regularly performs at the Club, including:

• Established cabaret headliners
• Musical theatre performers from West End productions
• Variety artists and character comedians
• National stand-up comedians
• Live musicians and hosts from the Showtunes Singalong and cabaret circuit

These artists will perform alongside special guest appearances from West End leading performers and nationally recognised comedy names, reflecting the full creative ecosystem that the Phoenix supports year-round.

The evening will celebrate the diversity of programming at the Club — from musical theatre and piano-bar singalongs to contemporary cabaret, drag performance, character comedy and live variety.

A Sector Under Pressure

The challenges facing The Phoenix Arts Club are not unique. Across Soho and the wider West End, independent performance spaces have closed at pace. The contraction of London’s live cabaret and music scene has left performers, musicians and technicians with fewer places to work and audiences with fewer places to gather.

The pressures are cumulative:

• The withdrawal of pandemic-era business rates relief.
• Increased employer National Insurance contributions.
• The continuation of late-night levies.
• Rising property and operational costs.
• Reduced access to Arts Council funding within London.
• Limited access to government-backed finance for venues operating on tight margins.

While large, vertically integrated theatre groups have diversified into food and beverage-led models, smaller independent venues remain exposed to fixed costs that continue to rise faster than revenues.

Cabaret and variety — art forms that sit at the heart of London’s creative ecology — are not currently recognised within Theatre Tax Relief structures, further disadvantaging independent performance spaces compared to larger subsidised institutions.

Why This Matters

The Phoenix Arts Club is more than a bar or performance space. It is a working ecosystem that provides paid opportunities for performers in musical theatre, cabaret, comedy, live music and LGBTQ+ performance.

In recent months, following the closure of other West End venues, The Phoenix has stepped in to provide continuity of employment for displaced performers, including hosting the creative team behind The Room Where It Happens in its new late-night residency, Sing Out, Louise!  .

Without intervention, London risks losing the very grassroots venues that sustain its headline industry.

Colin Savage, Creative Director of The Phoenix Arts Club, said:

“Independent venues are expected to absorb rising costs while continuing to provide paid work for artists and accessible space for audiences. We are proud of what we’ve built over 15 years — but pride alone does not close a structural funding gap.

This Gala is about securing the future of a space that has supported thousands of performers. If London wants independent culture to survive, it has to decide that these venues matter.”

The Gala

The Gala on 20 April will bring together leading names from cabaret, burlesque, comedy, musical theatre and queer performance, alongside West End stars and headline comedians who have long supported the venue.

100% of profits from the event will go directly to The Phoenix Arts Club Community Interest Company (12774130) .

The target is clear: £100,000 to secure the organisation’s continued operation over the next financial year.

A Call to Action

This is not a bail-out request. It is a public acknowledgement of the financial reality facing independent arts organisations in London.

The Phoenix Arts Club has survived for 38 years because artists and audiences have believed in it. This Gala is both a celebration of that community and a practical step to ensure it continues.