Dinner Theater (sometimes called dinner and show ) is a form of entertainment that combines restaurant dishes with performances or music. Sometimes a game is an incidental, secondary to eat entertainment, in a nightclub style, or a play may be a major feature of the evening, with a less important dinner or, in some cases, optional. The dinner theater requires the management of three different entities: a live theater, a restaurant, and usually, a bar.
Video Dinner theater
Histori
The Madrigal dinner at the renaissance is an early form of dinner theater. Some early theater dinners, known as "theater restaurant," serve dinner in one room, and perform in another room.
Barksdale Theater
The Barksdale Theater in Richmond, Virginia, founded in 1953 by David and Nancy Kilgore at Hanover Tavern, is the first formal dinner theater in the United States. After the theater was set up, a space adjacent to the theater was changed to accommodate a buffet dinner for the group attending the show, which eventually became available to all customers. Dinner is a choice in this professional and nonprofit theater.
Drury Lane Theater
Tony DeSantis opened Martinik Restaurant in Evergreen Park, Illinois and began producing dramas in 1949 in a tent adjacent to a restaurant to attract customers. The company was a success, prompting him to build his first theater, Drury Lane Evergreen Park in 1958. This was the first of six dinner theaters he started and local entertainment equipment for 45 years before closing in 2003. Drury Lane North began operations in 1976 and sold to Marriott Lincolnshire Resort, becoming the Marriott Theater. Drury Lane Oak Brook Terrace opened in 1984. The facility uses local players, and shows are limited to musicals.
Meadowbrook Theater Restaurant
Cedar Grove, New Jersey, is the location of the Meadowbrook Theater Restaurant, which opened in 1960 with 700 desk service seats. It closed after 13 years, partly due to nearby competition from Broadway, and the Actors' Equity Association (Equity) requirement that the facility follow the rules applied to Broadway theaters, including salary scales and other restrictions.
Candlelight Theater Restaurant
The first facility where dinner and show together in one room is the Candlelight Theater Restaurant in Washington, DC Bill Pullinsi was a theater student in 1959 who conceptualized and implemented the entertainment concept at Presidential Arms Hotel during the summer holidays. The business is successful, but can not be converted to operations throughout the year, due to the hotel convention business. Pullinsi returned to her home in Chicago and opened the Candlelight Dinner Playhouse, first in a grandfather's building, then at a new facility with seating for 550. The Candlelight introduced several innovations, including a hydraulic stage, lighting equipment located on the mezzanine, and the stage cars on wheels.
Theater Barn Dinner
Howard Douglass Wolfe, an entrepreneur from Roanoke, Virginia, created the franchise of the Barn Dinner Theater and has been called the "Father of Dinner Theater". He started the franchise in 1961 with Conley Jones. The chain includes 27 theaters in New York, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Louisiana, and Georgia. Each architecture designs Wolfe's architectural warehouses, farm-themed decorations that include plows and other equipment, and a stage elevator, called Wolfe as "Magic Stage". At the end of a scene or scene, the stage will disappear into the ceiling, then reappear for the next scene. The whole process takes less than a minute. During the franchise phase of The Barn, all the productions are staged in a studio in New York City, then sent to each theater. At the time of the outbreak of the franchise, the production facility was moved to Nashville. In the early days, the performers also served as waiters and waitresses. The actor was selected and cast in New York and lived in a residence above the theater during the production period. Robert De Niro was reportedly in action at The Barn in Greensboro until he was fired in the middle of the show. Mickey Rooney and many other famous artists also play a role in The Barn. The Barn in Greensboro, North Carolina, was founded in 1964 and is the oldest continuous dinner theater in America and the last of the original Barn Dinner Theaters, even though Barn's franchise opened in Nashville in 1967 ( now called Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theater) are also still in operation.
Alhambra Dinner Theater
The Alhambra Dinner Theater in Jacksonville, Florida opened in 1967 by Leon Simon. It was bought in 1985 by Tod Booth, who left Chicago Drury Lane Theaters. Alhambra is the second oldest dinner theater that still open in the United States and the oldest in Florida. This facility uses a push stage to provide 400 seats with unobstructed views.
Dinner Chanhassen Cinema
The Chanhassen Dinner Theater in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota was founded in 1968. Herb Bloomberg, who designed and built the extended Old Log Theater near Lake Minnetonka, later built and operated the Chanhassen Dinner Theaters. The Old Log Theater has an attached dining room and income from food sales is necessary for financial success, but they are not a dinner theater. Chanhassen claims to be the largest professional dinner theater in the US; Main Stage 577, Fireside Theater contains 230 seats for non-feeding customers, and the Playhouse Theater has a table for 126.
South Korean Night Theater
The Carousel Dinner Theater opened in 1973 and moved to downtown Akron, Ohio in 1988 to a Las Vegas-style nightclub. With 1,200 seats, it was the largest dinner theater in the United States until it closed in 2009. The theater became a victim of the US economic crisis in the late 2000s.
Beef & amp; Boards Dinner Theater
Beef & amp; Boards Dinner Theater in Indianapolis, Indiana, opened in 1973, and is one of a series of dinner theaters founded by J. Scott Talbott. It has a house with 450 seats and features Broadway shows and concerts preceded by a buffet dinner. It also offers a series of Live Theater for Kids each season. This is a professional Equity Theater.
Riddlesbrood Theater
In addition to the typical dinner theater fare - murder mystery shows, comedy shows, and several communities Theater, Burlington, Riddlesbrood Touring Theater Company in New Jersey also showcase production with self-help messages. Some of their performances have been performed entirely in artificial language, and have incorporated ideas from the New Thought movement.
Maps Dinner theater
Popularity and setback
The 1970s was the triumph of a dinner theater as a popular regional entertainment for local audiences in the US. Owner of the Alhambra Dinner Theater Tod Booth notes that in 1976, there were 147 professional dinner theaters operating throughout the country. Very popular is the dinner theater used by former movie actors to star in production. Van Johnson, Lana Turner, Don Ameche, Eve Arden, Mickey Rooney, June Allyson, Shelley Winters, Dorothy Lamour, Hunter Tab, Betty Grable, Sandra Dee, Mamie Van Doren, Joan Blondell, Debbie Reynolds, Cyd Charisse, Kathryn Grayson, Betty Hutton, Jane Withers, Martha Raye, Elke Sommer, Donald O'Connor, Roddy McDowall, Jane Russell, Cesar Romero, and Ann Miller are just some of the Hollywood stars featured at the dinner theater. The actors of the most famous television series, such as Betty White, Ann B. Davis, Vivian Vance, Bob Denver, JoAnne Worley, Bernie Kopell, Dawn Wells, Ken Berry, Gavin MacLeod, Nancy Kulp and Frank Sutton are also used as headliners. Burt Reynolds had a dinner theater in Jupiter, Florida from 1979 to 1997, as did the actor Earl Holliman, who owns the Fiesta Dinner Playhouse in San Antonio, Texas.
The Derby Dinner Playhouse in Clarksville, Indiana opened in 1974 and is still open in 2009, operating continuously for 35 years. They use a "magic stage" similar to that used by the Barn Dinner Theater. An orchestra, if used, plays in the "attic", invisible.
The explosion ended in the mid-1980s, with much theater closure. Movie stars and tv stop doing the dinner theater. Booth commented, "They can make more in a day doing advertisements than they can do during the whole dinner theater show, and they do not have to travel, plus many stars are just beginning to die, that's a good show for a while." He also said that, in 1999, you could count the number of professional dinner theaters that survived with two hands. There is a stigma attached to the dinner theater, and the audience is bored with performances like The Last of the Red Hot Lovers and Arsenic and Old Lace .
Resurgence
After 2000, a new dinner theater began to open. Drury Lane Water Tower Place in Chicago was established in 1976, but closed in 1983. The new version, $ 7 million opened in 2004. Desert Star Theater in Murray, Utah opened a dinner theater in 2004, and Gathering Dinner Theater in Jacksonville opened in early 2009. At the end of 2006, the National Dinner Theater Association has 32 members, compared to 9 in 1999.
Different types
Union vs. Non-Union
The unity theater is known as the Theater equity , where players are members of Equity, a union representing professional stage performers and stage managers. Trade union exhibitions have higher overheads because Equity contracts typically require theater to pay for lodging, minimum wages, insurance and pension payments, among other workplace regulations regarding auditions and hiring.
The reduction of professional dinner theater from 147 in 1976 to 9 in 1999 was in part due to union theater turned into a non-union to reduce costs. Although actors are often placed in non-union cinemas, salaries for non-union actors may be considerably lower than in the theaters of Equity.
Commercial vs. non-profit
Tony DeSantis commented that theatrical operations can break even, while restaurants, and especially bars, are more likely to be profitablel. While many theaters operate as nonprofit organizations to take advantage of grants and funding from government agencies or private foundations, most cinema dinners are commercial businesses. Commercial dinner theaters often feature six or seven nights a week, as well as a matinee. They also have a short pause between shows, usually less than a week.
An example of a nonprofit theater is the Starlight Dinner Theater in Lansing, Michigan, where dinners are provided, performances are staged in school cafeterias and the seasons only cover four productions with four per production performances (on Friday and Saturday nights). Some nonprofits use actors or amateur actors where the lead role may be a professional with the rest of the amateur players.
Variations
Tourist
Vacation destinations such as Las Vegas, Destin, Florida, Branson, Missouri, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, Anaheim and Los Angeles, California, have seen the advent of a special dinner theater, where performances remain the same for the long term because the vast majority of their customers are tourists , not a local resident. The most popular holiday destination in the United States, Orlando, Florida, has more than a dozen dinner theaters operating in 1999; until the 1990s, sixteen opened and closed there.
Whodunnit
The murder mystery game (MM) is an interactive dinner theater show that has become their own popular segment. Production may be public, in which anyone can attend for the admission price, or personal, in which a company, social group or organization sponsors an event for its members. While utilizing the concept of "dinner and show," MM generally targets smaller audiences than typical dinner theaters, with public performances featuring professional actors while private performances can offer "roles" to guests, who participate in production as characters or detectives..
More
Wedding Comedy is similar to Murder Mystery because the staging requirements are minimal and the audience interacts with the actors as they perform. The Italian Comedy Wedding Joey and Maria was written by Darlyne Franklin in 1992 and the franchise rights were sold in 2001. Other examples include Tony n 'Tina's Wedding, Frankie & Gina's Comedy Wedding and gay versions, Joni and Gina's Wedding.
Riverboat Dinner Cruises combines Showboat with food. Of course, they are limited to locations in navigable water bodies, such as Showboat Branson Belle or Goldenrod Showboat. There are many Massacres of Dinner Supper Mysteries.
Madrigal dinners aka Madrigal Feasts are seasonal, usually held during the Christmas season. They are often staged by educational or religious institutions for fundraising and include food, music & amp; singing, poetry & amp; humor, costumes, and games from the Middle Ages, from the medieval to the renaissance period.
See also
- Cabaret
- List of dinner theaters
Source
- Lynk, William M. Dinner Theater-A Survey and Directory , Greenwood Publishing (1993) ISBNÃ, 0-313-28442-3
- McAuley, Muriel: Happened... Barksdale Theater, The First Thirty-One Years , Taylor Publishing, 1984. ISBNÃ, 0-9613905-0-6
- Miller, Michael (2008). Complete idiot guide to music history . Indianapolis, Indiana: Alpha. ISBN: 1592577512. OCLCÃ, 180755051.
References
External links
- The National Dinner Theater Association website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments