PHUKET: The Aphrodite Cabaret in Phuket City is planning a surprise opening later this week, with Phuket's reputation as the katoey capital likely to be enhanced.

The auditorium - a revamped version of the 2000-seat Phuket Brewery - will have seats for an audience of 1100 and about 100 performers will be on-stage.

While Phuket City has the reputation for better restaurants than Phuket's west coast tourist beach destinations, the west coast has FantaSea in Kamala and Simon cabaret in southern Patong as perhaps the two most popular after-dark tourist attractions.

Various attempts have been made to entice nightly audiences at this venue, which probably just needs the right form of entertainment to make it work.

The theatre will open either on Thursday or Saturday this week, a spokesperson said, with a Neo suki restaurant out the front. A beer garden and a Chinese restaurant are likely to come later.

What Phuket needs is the right kind of venue to attract international performers. The old Phuket Brewery certainly offered the right quality, having the capapcity to seat 2000 at dining tables.

Aphrodite Cabaret, though, will also need to be capable to attracting residents as well as tourists if it is to sustain an audience of several hundred each night.

Prices have yet to be determined, but if the venue does succeed, then Phuket could look seriously at finding an entrepreneur to bring headline acts on a regular basis.

The Aphrodite Cabaret is opposite Teso-Lotus supermarket in Phuket City. Another spectacular show, Siam Niramit, is due to open a bit further along the bypass road before high season.