The Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre

Yeah, OP, I know his Florida dinner theater was originally successful and I've wondered about it, the overall quality, the famous names who appeared, why it eventually failed, etc, Surely someone at DL knows at least some of the inside dope.

Did Charles Nelson Reilly ever perform there?

The really important question is did Suzanne Somers ever perform there? Never was there a brighter talent than the accomplished, electrifying, Miss Suzanne Somers.

I've never been to a dinner theater. Do people eat while the show is going on? Wouldn't the clinking glasses and silverware be a distraction? Or is everyone so drunk that they don't notice how ridiculous it is that they paid to see Charles Nelson Reilly? If the show sucks, can you hurl your lasagna at the stage?

I attended many times and always in a company of a gentleman.

Usually eat first, then the show.

Shame on you, OP! It's ALWAYS referred to on DL as the MISTER Burt Reynolds Dinner Theater!

I read about it and it sounds like something great but definitely of its time. No real stars/actors would want to do it. We have reality celebrities who care nothing about acting, craft or artistry. Also, the entertainment landscape is now so spread out that getting a "name" would be so esoteric that they wouldn't draw anyone.

I saw Miss Ruth Buzzi perform there as Evita!

Eat first, or at least get main course on the table, pre-show; sometimes buffet or prix-fixe with limited number of choices so food can come fast. Intermission runs long and it's for another round of cocktails and/or dessert. Check gets dropped either at the very end of intermission or during curtain call.

BRDT, though the object of lots of derision, actually had some very starry casts and did a good job of matching talent to material much of the time. It's the food aspect that made it kitschy, along with the programming of bad farces instead of good comedies, and concerts masquerading as theatre. Any regional theatre, even today, would love to have that kind of starpower in their season (with those people fresh off TV and higher up the fame ladder than they are now.)

R8 makes a good point - the uprising of the musical theatre stock tents and dinner theatres came during a perfect storm: right after the studio system dissolved in Hollywood, you had a glut of these talented, trained, very famous people who were all suddenly out of work. So there was a surplus of experienced talent who had been trained in both live musical theatre performance and trained in How To Be a Star with a standard of living to uphold, and live performances (especially in the tents and Music Circuses and Music Fairs that held thousands of people) let these stars uphold a semblance of their standard of living.

Also, on TV, if you weren't in a series, you did theatre because the residual system as we know it didn't really begin till after 1974, and is much more evolved now--you made decent money on TV, but not huge bucks and not perpetually unless you were Lucy or someone who owned their own show. But you could be Jo Anne Worley and go out during the 26 weeks a year when you weren't actually taping LAUGH-IN and do theatre and likely make what you were making per episode on TV.

Today everyone's independent, they can't be counted on to have acting training or even to have done any theatre at all--not even in school, much less have musical theatre performance training at a professional level. And with what people get paid, any "name" a dinner theatre or regional theatre could afford today wouldn't move the box office needle that much. The Alhambra in Jacksonville and the New Theatre in Overland Park are the last of the star heavy dinner theatres that survive.

r2 I know he directed several productions there.

My grandmother loved dinner theaters, and we went all the time here in CA. Because it was so close to LA, they got decent people too.

My favorite was seeing Dorothy Lamour in Barefoot In The Park at the Lawrence Welk Theater. I was 10.

I know the Buzzi meme from GOLDEN GIRLS, R9, but the truth is nothing like that really happened at BRDT. Even in the later years with lower wattage names, they still tried to make it all make sense.

Personally, it makes me sad to think about all the summer theatres and dinner theatres that have left us--especially those that did the live-and-in-person shows that gave people a good time in their little town or in the place where they were vacationing. Staying home and watching Netflix isn't the same.

Here's an article about the end of the line for BRDT.

What was the food like?

I saw Arte Johnson do Richard III there as I was gagging on my potatoes au gratin. It was so much fun.

Still going strong in Minnesota. From looking at their schedule, musical tributes over the summer; the Eagles, Beatles, James Taylor. The serious 'drama' starts in the fall with Grease and Sister Act.

I've been to this one several times. Their shows are usually decent, although I hate the fact that they use canned music.

Ruth Buzzi IS Evita. Her performance brought tears to my eyes.

A friend of mine who worked there back in the 1980s said Burt had a "special friend," a hunky Vietnam vet who worked as backstage crew.

When Isabel Sanford and Sherman Helmsley did PORGY AND BESS, it was a night to remember.

"You really ARE dinner theater in southwest Illinois!"

-- One of my favorite lines from SNL, said to a Jan Hook's character.

Eat first and then see the show? Wouldn't those with diverticulitis need to unload during Act I?

Burt had a lot of "special friends".

R12, Please tell me Dottie wasn't playing the Elizabeth Ashley/Jane Fonda role.

Not me, by my mother saw Miss Sue Ane Langdon and Mr. Larry Linville perform Same Time Next Year at the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theater. Circa 1983.

In 1987, I saw Carole Cook as Mame there with Lorna Luft as Gooch. They were wonderful in a fine, small-scale production. Most memorable was Ms. Cook's arm encased in a very fake looking fox puppet.

There was censorship! Mame's line "Vera loves little boys" became "Vera loves children."

Dinner was served first at long communal tables.. The chairs swiveled later to face the stage. The waitstaff were all teenage boy and girl apprentices of the theater.

My first and only dinner theater and I am glad to have had the experience.

Yes, R2, Charles Nelson Reilly did perform there, at least twice that I know of.

Charles Nelson Reilly's one-man show "The Life of Reilly" was freaking brilliant.

Don't disparage things you don't know shit about!

Who's disparaging?

I find it disturbing that so many of the people who performed there have died. Is it the curse of the BRDT?

[quote]The chairs swiveled later to face the stage.

They think of everything!

I only went once - with my grandma to Derby Dinner Playhouse on the Indiana side across from Louisville when I was about 13. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers I think it was. Dinner was served before the show and I think dessert was intermission. It's still in business - they've got a John Denver impersonator coming soon. Wish I could get back to Louisville for that.

No, there is no curse.

I went to BRDT twice as a teenager. First in 1986 to see a production of Orphans starring Judd Nelson. I later arranged to do an interview with Nelson for my school paper and was the envy of my school for five minutes. I went back a year later to see a production of a play called Wrestlers, also starring Judd Nelson, with Sarah Jessica Parker and Dan Monahan from Porky's. I was super pissed because it was clear the actors were bored with the show and had zero regard for the audience. They spent half the time ad-libbing and trying to crack each other up. At one point, Nelson started jumping up and down on a bed and broke it, which caused Parker to laugh so hard she left the stage.

Sorry, R14, I don't remember a thing about the food other than we ate first, then moved into the theater.

Amy Adams got her start at the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre in the suburbs of Minneapolis.

I'd be out of my mind to miss Mr. Jamie Farr in "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial"!

Roslyn Kind IS Funny Girl. Jamie Farr doing double-duty as Nicky and in Caine. Triple-duty if a server calls in sick.

Dinner theater died a slow death. It used to be where the washed-up or overripe went to perform. Now they have voice work and the people who liked this sort of thing have been dead for about 20 years.

Washed up and overripe? I made all my money from dinner theater during my Lucy years.

About your comment, I have sufficient.

[quote]Roslyn Kind IS Funny Girl.

I saw it with her replacement, Julie Budd.

bumping up for today

Dinner Theatre was NEVER as thrilling as a USO Spectacular with sizzling stars such as Miss Connie Stevens.