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Majestic Theatre kicks off dinner series

MANCHESTER – Delicately meshing live performances with fine dining, the Majestic Theatre in Manchester will host a dinner theater series that kicks off Jan. 27 with “Lost in Yonkers.”

Five shows will be produced for the series, which runs from January through May. Those shows, including the aforementioned “Yonkers,” are “Suitehearts,” “Tomfoolery,” “An American Millionaire” and “Puttin’ on the Ritz: The Music of Irving Berlin.”

“We generally do 15 shows a year, which is a lot,” Karen Bessette, Majestic Theatre development director, said. “But that also includes an auction event with some great entertainment, and there’s a few different events, a couple of youth add-on shows, cabaret shows with a small group or a singer, so that kind of rounds out our season.”

Bessette, who spends much time in her role for the Majestic finding grant resources and sponsorships for businesses, in an effort to put on productions and fund educational programs, said staging theater with a side of dinner is, “a little difficult.”

“Really, it’s just an added component to presenting a show. We’ve worked really hard with the Chateau; we’ve done dinner theater for a number of years here at the Cartier Street location, and that was a whole lot more work because we have a chef who’s also our technical director and he’s a chef by day, so he was cooking the meals himself.”

Kevin Barrett, director of “Lost in Yonkers,” has helmed several dinner theater productions.

“Staging-wise, it has to be a fairly simple set because you can’t do a lot of set changes. There just isn’t the space to bring things in and out, and you can’t do a lot of quick lighting because basically, it’s a restaurant, and the lights need to be up and down, so technically, it needs to be a simple show,” Barrett said.

Volunteers stepped in and stepped up, doing everything from cooking and serving the meals, to cleaning up at the end.

“It was a hard (effort), but we worked really hard with the Chateau to bring the same continuity we’ve had in the last several years with the dinner theater,” Bessette said. “And so the menu is similar to the menus we’ve always done: It’s usually a chicken or a pork type of entree, a side dish of rice or potatoes, a salad, so something that pretty much everybody will enjoy, and then if we need to make a couple of modifications, we can work with the Chateau on that.”

The meal presentation is timed like a perfect overture.

“People will come in and have dinner for the first hour; then they’ll start with act one of the show, and then dessert is served during intermission, with act two following.”

While there is no exact science to the creative process of selecting the shows for the dinner theater series, Bessette said that careful consideration is given to show length and other practical matters.

“When you add dinner to the time of a show, that’s an extra hour, so you have to be mindful of what’s going to work out well for running time,” Bessette said. “Plus, the Chateau has a limited stage, so we’re picking shows that don’t have a huge cast. A lot of our shows will be anywhere from four characters to eight or 10 at the most. So we tailor that component of it.”

“And then, with any season offerings, we want to make sure that there’s a good mix of music, some comedy, some drama – something that will please the majority of the patrons throughout the season. A lot of people are subscribers for the season, so to be able to present some comedy and then a musical for another show and then a murder/mystery, which everybody enjoys, that’s how we make our selections.”

Repeat customers are also a common thread from show to show and season to season.

“We have a very loyal following,” Bessette said.