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dinner theater

American  

noun

  1. a restaurant in which a stage production is performed during or after dinner.

  2. stage productions performed in dinner theaters.


Etymology

Origin of dinner theater

First recorded in 1965–70

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Scheel conceived its productions as a kind of cabaret dinner theater — a place for his talented friends to belt out show tunes of a cinematic variety when such opportunities were glancingly few in L.A.

From Los Angeles Times Mar. 4, 2025

The show is like daytime dinner theater, they explain.

From Seattle Times May 31, 2024

Audra McDonald has been dreaming of “Gypsy” since she was a 10-year-old in Fresno, Calif., with a small part in a dinner theater production of the musical.

From New York Times May 29, 2024

‘Van Helsing’s Dracula,’ a dinner theater experience in Van Nuys, has aerialists, ballerinas and plate-spinners in the tale of vampire versus vampire hunter.

From Los Angeles Times Nov. 15, 2023

Somebody would inevitably high-kick when it was time for spirit fingers, the timing was off on the contagion, and the whole thing was such a disaster that Petra pronounced it “so dinner theater on Mars.”

From "Beauty Queens" by Libba Bray

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