Dinner Theatre is a format that caters usually to elderly patrons. The building will be both a restaurant and theatre. In some places food is served during the show, others it's served beforehand.
The plays chosen tend to be
The Musical, or other
Lowest Common Denominator crowd-pleasing fare. A popular variation has been to mix this with
LARP Murder Mystery theatre, where the audience takes part.
In fiction, this is usually portrayed as the lowest job an actor can get.
Examples:
Film
- Soap Dish has Kevin Kline's washed-up character performing Death of a Salesman at a Dinner Theatre. [1]
- At the beginning of Shrek The Third, Prince Charming is reduced to performing dinner theater to an unappreciative audience who cheer Shrek (who is supposed to be the villain in the play) instead of him.
- The film Auto Focus recreates Bob Crane having to make do with this kind of theatre roles to make ends meet, after Hogan's Heroes ends.
Western Animation
- Bob's Burgers - the episode "Hamburger Dinner Theater"
- King of the Hill had "Abracapasta", a dinner theatre specializing in magic.
- In an episode of Chowder, Shnitzel plays a tree in Mung Daal's dinner theater.
- On The Simpsons:
- Krusty The Klown also appeared in King Lear at the Springfield Dinner Theatre
- The family also went to a magic-themed dinner theater.
- Dan Vs.. has an episode called "Dan Vs. Ye Olde Shakespeare Dinner Theatre"
