Candlelight Dinner Playhouse
Johnstown, Colorado
The Candlelight Dinner Playhouse is “dedicated to preserving the art form of American musical theater,” said director of marketing Don Berlin. That means in the 2017-2018 season, the Candlelight’s 10th, theatergoers will enjoy productions of “Man of La Mancha,” “Kiss Me Kate” and “The Music Man,” which runs from September through August.
The Candlelight, which puts on five or six shows each season, is now branching out into newer pieces such as Disney’s “Beauty and Beast,” straight from Broadway, and Disney’s “Newsies” next summer, Berlin said. It will wrap up its current season with “42nd Street,” which runs through June 4, followed by “The Slipper and the Rose: The Story of Cinderella,” running through August 27.
The Candlelight Dinner Playhouse is in Johnstown, Colorado, 45 miles due north of Denver and a straight shot on Interstate 25. Because the Candlelight was built as a dinner theater, it was designed with the experience in mind. The main auditorium area features a proscenium theater with guests sitting on one of seven tiers in front it, “so there really isn’t a bad seat in the house,” Berlin said. The playhouse can seat about 250 for each show, but its new conference and meeting facility that opened in February offers event space for another 200 people.
Unlike some theaters with separate restaurants or preshow buffets, guests spend the entire evening at their table, with dinner during the show and dessert during intermission. The playhouse does a brisk group business with out-of-state tour groups, as well as with local churches, company parties and senior centers. Because the owner is a devout Christian, he strives to make sure the Candlelight’s programming is appropriate for a wide variety of audiences and ages, Berlin said.
Fireside Dinner Theatre
Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin
In 1964, Dick and Betty Klopcic built a 60-foot-by-60-foot pyramid-shaped building in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, with a fireplace at its center. The Fireside restaurant was born. As business boomed, the couple expanded several times over the years until they eventually expanded into dinner theater. In 1978, they connected the restaurant to an adjacent building that they transformed into an in-the-round theater.
Today, more than 50 years after opening, the Fireside comprises the original restaurant, the theater and four gift shops, all of which are still in the Klopcic family; the couple’s son, Rick Klopcic, took over in 1998.
The theater can seat 650 guests and offers several matinees and evening performances each week, except on Friday nights. In Wisconsin, Friday nights are fish-fry nights.
“We’ll serve 600 people easy,” said Julie Nordeen, marketing manager who has been with the Fireside for 35 years.
Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” will run through April 16, followed by “South Pacific” through June 4. “Back to the ’50s,” a musical revue, will be onstage until July 23 and will be followed by the original production of “Church Basement Ladies,” a live musical about the “quintessential ladies that run the church,” Nordeen said. “It’s very Scandinavian. It’s very funny.”
This fall, “Elvis Lives” takes the audience through the King’s life, and this year’s holiday production will be the musical version of “Miracle on 34th Street.”
The Fireside also offers a Christian concert series that features four acts a year. The Jim Brady Trio is a gospel act that will perform in May, and Southern Raised will bring its blend of Christian country, bluegrass, classical and Celtic to the stage in August. The family group The Hoppers will perform in November.
Derby Dinner Playhouse
Clarksville, Indiana
Just across the Ohio River from downtown Louisville, Kentucky, the Derby Dinner Playhouse in Clarksville, Indiana, is a 500-seat theater that has been entertaining guests and satisfying their appetites for more than 40 years.
After wrapping up a production of “The Addams Family,” “Stinky Kids the Musical” will run through April 1, followed by “Sister Act,” the musical version of the movie about a Vegas singer who hides out in a nunnery. The Derby will offer more children’s theater with “Fancy Nancy the Musical” through the month of June.
The Derby’s annual concert series features a wide variety of performers, such as John Denver tribute artists and Beatles cover bands, doo-wop groups and comedy acts. The 19-piece Glenn Miller Orchestra will perform a matinee and an evening concert on June 5 featuring favorites such as “Tuxedo Junction” and “In the Mood.” “How Great Thou Art” is a concert featuring the gospel music of Elvis Presley, with Robert Shaw and the Lonely Street Band, along with a gospel quartet.
“Both of these concerts are very popular with groups, and we bring them back year after year to sold-out crowds,” said marketing director Annie Myers.
