dinner theater
Americannoun
-
a restaurant in which a stage production is performed during or after dinner.
-
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.
To Richard’s horror, it has, for want of income, become a dinner theater, hosting touring productions of “Nunsense” and “Forever Plaid” instead of the great stage works on which he cut his teeth.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 1, 2026
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,” an immersive dinner theater experience in Van Nuys, reveals a unique iteration of the vampire versus hunter rivalry.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 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
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
