Bon Appetit! Shows Set in Restaurants

A table for two? Step into a restaurant and open the menu, playtext or even script to taste and experience the theatrical delights of setting a show in a restaurant. From the innovative reimagination of classics to contemporary heartfelt stories, these stories are served with an unforgettable feast.

’Allo ’Allo by Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 5w, 10m)
Based on the hugely successful British television series, which ran for seven seasons, this uproarious comedy relates the adventures of Rene, a hapless café owner in occupied France.

A Crazy Little Café Called Love by Luigi Jannuzzi (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3w, 3m)
Comedy! Romance! A fast-paced day. All served up in a crazy little café! These eight hilarious and charming short scenes, all happening in one crazy day at the Love Café, can be performed by a cast ranging from 6 to 16 actors.

A Good Old Fashioned Redneck Country Wedding by Kris Vosler (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3w, 6m)
Fans of the hit A Good Old Fashioned Redneck Country Christmas (US) know Jimmy finally popped the question. Fast-forward to Valentine’s Day, just six weeks later, and the girls are back at the diner on the morning of Darlene and Jimmy’s wedding. This raucous and heartwarming comedy features the same redneck characters your audience knows and loves, and the story continues!

A Twisted Christmas Carol by Phil Olson (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 2w, 3m)
This is a Texas spoof of Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol – set in a barbecue joint! It’s Christmas Eve in a small west Texas town, and cantankerous barbecue owner Buford Johnson gets hit by a twister, setting off a Dickensian adventure with a Texas twist.

American Hero by Bess Wohl (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 2w, 5m)
At a toasted subs franchise in the local mall, three up-and-coming “sandwich artists” – a teenager, a single mom, and a downsized refugee from corporate banking – are perfecting the mustard-to-cheese ratio according to the company manual. But when their shot at the American dream is interrupted by a series of strange events, they become unlikely allies in a post-recession world.

An Empty Plate in the Café du Grand Boeuf by Michael Hollinger (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 2w, 4m)
No menu necessary at the world’s greatest restaurant, the Café du Grand Boeuf in Paris. Why? “Because we have everything,” headwaiter Claude admonishes to waiter-in-training Antoine. On this hot July night in 1961, the two join waitress Mimi and chef Gaston in awaiting the imminent arrival of Victor, the Café’s owner and sole patron. But when “Monsieur” returns from the bullfights in Madrid, disheveled and morose, his wish is simple: to die of starvation at his own table. The frantic staff, whose very lives depend on Victor’s appetite, try all means to change his mind in this comedic caper.

August Wilson’s Two Trains Running by August Wilson (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 1w, 6m)
The 1960s chapter of August Wilson’s American Century Cycle, a decade-by-decade saga of African American life in the 20th century, takes audience to a Pittsburgh coffee shop. With Chekhovian obliqueness, this story revelas simple truths, hopes and dreams, creating a microcosm of an era and a community on the brink of change.

Blackademics by Idris Goodwin (US)
(Short Play, Comedy / 3w)
There’s something strange about the trendy new restaurant in town. When Ann and Rachelle meet there for dinner, there’s already tension in the friendship they’ve built on their common experience navigating academia as black women. But as the hunger sets in, the two professors find themselves the unknowing stars of an absurdist dinner theatre performance of black plight. Somebody’s got to get the first bite, after all. A sharp, surreal satire about who gets a place at the table.

Business Ideas by Milo Cramer (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 4w)
In a too-cute café, a desperate mother and daughter brainstorm get-rich-quick schemes to pay for college (or maybe to make ends meet?). Meanwhile, their hapless server tries to network with a revolving cast of customers, all hilariously played by one actor. Inspired by playwright Milo Cramer’s own experiences with his enterprising mom, Business Ideas is an award-winning comedy about getting rich (or not?), and whether money really buys happiness – one cup of coffee at a time.

Bus Stop by William Inge (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3w, 5m)
In the middle of a howling snowstorm, a bus out of Kansas City pulls up at a cheerful roadside diner. All roads are blocked, and four or five weary travelers are going to have to hole up until morning in this piece by well-known playwright William Inge.

Celebration by Harold Pinter (US/UK)
(Short Play, Dramatic Comedy / 4w, 5m)
In a fashionable restaurant, two gangsterish brothers, formerly from the East End but now “strategy consultants who enforce the peace,” are celebrating a wedding anniversary with their wives, who are sisters. At the next table, a banker is dining with his wife, who was formerly his secretary. Violent and wildly funny, this play displays a vivid zest for life as the diners and staff at an elegant restaurant treat audiences to some unusually entertaining fare.

Clean by Audrey Cefaly (US/UK)
(Short Play, Dramatic Comedy / 1w, 1m)
Lina, a worn-out waitress, is having the worst day of her life. She and Roberto, a quiet, unassuming dishwasher who has admired her from afar, sit alone in the diner at midnight and share stories about their lonely lives.

Clyde’s by Lynn Nottage (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 2w, 3m)
A truck stop sandwich shop offers its formerly incarcerated kitchen staff a shot at redemption. Even as the shop’s callous owner tries to keep them down, the staff members learn to reclaim their lives, find purpose, and become inspired to dream by their shared quest to create the perfect sandwich.

Daphne’s Dive by Quiara Alegría Hudes (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 3m)
In a tucked away corner of North Philly, six regulars gather at a neighborhood watering hole. Over twenty years, they turn their collective memories into a vivacious mythology. The tales they’d rather forget, however, keep sneaking up and tapping them on the shoulder. At Daphne’s Dive, an aloe plant, a girl’s sneaker, a stiff drink, and mounds of trash become talismanic treasures to a group of outsiders trying to be “in” together.

Dealer’s Choice by Patrick Marber (UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 6m)
Stephen, a restaurateur, hosts a weekly poker game in the basement. The stakes are high and the waiters often lose their paycheques. Stephen’s son, Carl, is an obsessive gambler who has run up debts and when professional gambler Ash threatens to kill Carl if he doesn’t pay the £4000 he owes, Carl arranges for him to play in the weekly game. Can Stephen spot a professional and confront Ash when he asks where Carl acquired his addiction?

East Texas Hot Links by Eugene Lee (US) 
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 1w, 7m) 
In summer 1955 in the piney woods of East Texas, local men wander into Charlesetta’s Top o’ the Hill Cafe for comfort, solace and companionship. Times are changing, the Klan is active and young Black men have been disappearing or turning up dead. This night, Delmus wants to celebrate getting a new job, but the other regulars are skeptical. Eventually betrayal catches all of them, and life at Top o’ the Hill is changed forever.

Empanada Loca by Aaron Mark (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Horror / 1w + ensemble)
In this play inspired by the legend of Sweeney Todd, a very hungry Dolores – now living deep under Manhattan in an abandoned subway tunnel with the Mole People – recounts her years selling weed with her boyfriend, her return to Washington Heights after thirteen years in prison, her fortuitous reunion with an old stoner friend who lets her give massages for cash in the basement under his empanada shop, and the bloodbath that sent her fleeing underground.

Employees Must Wash Hands… Before Murder by Don Zolidis (US)
(Short Play, Comedy / 8w, 1m, 10 any gender)
Something is rotten at the Burgatorium, a low-end fast food restaurant… and it’s not just the burgers. Hit with a surprise health inspection, employees hilariously rush around to clean up their messes, hide the rats and find real meat for the burgers. But luck is not on their side when their manager turns up dead in a freezer. This super-sized murder mystery comes with a side of funny and a healthy dose of ridiculous as the health inspector and his gangsta intern investigate a lineup of crazy characters that includes a singing tapeworm.

Fast Food by Tracy Wells (US)
(Short Play, Comedy / 6 any gender)
When you’re hungry for hilarity but short on time and tight on budget, where do you turn? Why, the one-act play Fast Food, of course! From crazy customers to screwy staff, this vignette-style collection of scenes set in the world of fast food restaurants will satisfy your craving for fast food fun while offering a simple set and an entirely flexible and expandable cast.

First Date by Austin Winsberg, Alan Zachary & Michael Weiner (US/UK) 
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 4w, 3m) 
When blind date newbie Aaron is set up with serial-dater Casey, a casual drink at a busy New York restaurant turns into a hilarious high-stakes dinner. As the date unfolds in real time, the couple quickly finds that they are not alone on this unpredictable evening. Also available in a 5-actor version (US/UK).

Fresh Brewed: Tales from the Coffee Bar by Henry Meyerson (US/UK)
(Collection or Anthology, Comedy / 2w, 2m)
This collection of eleven plays – all of which take place in a coffee bar – use the same set of two small tables and four chairs and can be performed by four actors in various combinations to bring the fun of food to all its mediums, from monologue to quartet.

Fully Committed by Becky Mode (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 1m)
This devastatingly funny one act follows a day in the life of Sam Peliczowski, an out-of-work actor who mans the red-hot reservation line at Manhattan’s number-one restaurant. Coercion, threats, bribes, histrionics form a cast of desperate callers that will stop at nothing in their zeal to land a prime reservation, or the right table. A wonderful acting challenge, Fully Committed has forty wildly diverse characters designed to be played by a single versatile performer.

Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet (US)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 7m)
This scalding comedy took Broadway and London by storm. Here is Mamet at his very best, writing about small-time, cutthroat real estate salesmen trying to grind out a living by pushing plots of land on reluctant buyers, in a never-ending scramble for their share of the American dream. Spend the entire opening scene in a Chinese restaurant alongside these ambitious men!

Grand Concourse by Heidi Schreck (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 2m)
Having dedicated her life to religious service, Shelley runs a Bronx soup kitchen with unsentimental efficiency, but lately her heart’s not quite in it. Until Emma – an idealistic but confused college dropout – arrives to volunteer, pushing Shelley to the breaking point. With keen humor and startling compassion, Heidi Schreck’s drama navigates the mystery of faith, the limits of forgiveness, and the pursuit of something resembling joy.

Happy Days – A New Musical (Full-Length Version) by Garry Marshall and Paul Williams (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 7w, 10m)
Based on the hit Paramount Pictures television series, Happy Days, A New Musical reintroduces one of America’s best loved families, the Cunninghams, to a whole new generation of kids and parents. In it, the famed drive-in malt shop and number-one hangout, Arnold’s, is in danger of demolition. So the gang teams up to save it with a dance contest and a TV-worthy wrestling match. Reminisce theatrically with these familiar characters in either its full-length or 90-minute version (US/UK).

Hello, Dolly! by Michael Stewart, Jerry Herman and Thornton Wilder (US/UK) 
(Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 5w, 4m + ensemble) 
Does any musical comedy leading lady compare to Dolly Levi? This musical adaptation of Thornton Wilder’s hit play The Matchmaker bursts with humor, romance, energetic dance, and some of the greatest songs in musical theatre history. Dolly Gallagher-Levi, turn-of-the-century matchmaker and “woman who arranges things,” is a dynamic feast of a role, as evidenced by performances from megastars like Carol Channing, Barbra Streisand and Bette Midler. In the show-stopping number of the same name as the title, join Dolly and the dancing waiters at the famous Harmonia Gardens restaurant, where it’s so nice to have her back where she belongs.

How To Get Into Buildings by Trish Harnetiaux (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dark Comedy / 3w, 3m)
Roger and Lucy meet at a convention. Daphne and Nick break down at a diner. Ethan continues to read compulsively from his new book, The Car Accident, which wouldn’t exist without Daphne. Soon, it becomes apparent that reality is slippery, time shifty, and we join our characters’ struggles with their own discoveries about love, opportunity, and the desire to pause with trepidation as they try to articulate who and what they actually love.

My Mañana Comes by Elizabeth Irwin (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4m)
Just beyond the elegant dining room of an Upper East Side restaurant, four busboys angle for shifts, pray for tips, and cling to dreams of life beyond their dingy back-of-house grind.

2014 Playwrights Realm Production of My Mañana Comes (Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade)

Mystic Pizza by Sandy Rustin, Amy Holden Jones & Carmel Dean (US/UK)
(Full-Length Musical, Dramatic Comedy / 8w, 8m)
Based on the beloved 1988 MGM rom-com, this high-spirited new musical is about three working-class girls who navigate the complexities of life, love and family in a small-town pizza joint. The infectious score features mega hits of the 1980s and 1990s, from “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” to “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now.”

Picasso at the Lapin Agile by Steve Martin (US/UK) 
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 2w, 7m) 
Steve Martin’s long-running off-Broadway absurdist comedy places Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso in a Parisian café in 1904, just before the renowned scientist transformed physics with his theory of relativity and the celebrated painter set the art world afire with cubism. In his first comedy for the stage, the popular actor and screenwriter plays fast and loose with fact, fame, and fortune as these two geniuses muse on the century’s achievements and prospects, as well as other fanciful topics, with infectious dizziness. 

Pocatello by Samuel D. Hunter (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 5w, 5m)
Eddie manages an Italian chain restaurant in Pocatello – a small, unexceptional American city that is slowly being paved over with strip malls and franchises. But he can’t serve enough soup, salad & breadstick specials to make his hometown feel like home.

Pump Boys and Dinettes by John Foley, Mark Hardwick, Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, John Schimmel and Jim Wann (US/UK) 
(Full-Length Musical, Dramatic Comedy / 2w, 4m)
A smash hit on and off-Broadway, this crowd-pleasing country-western musical features Prudie and Rhetta Cupp from the Double Cupp Diner, singing and performing along with the talented boys from the gas station next door.

Seared by Theresa Rebeck (US/UK) 
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 1w, 3m) 
This sizzling contemporary comedy – set in the kitchen of a boutique Brooklyn restaurant – wrestles hilariously with the conflict between art and commerce. Brilliant, hot-headed chef Harry scores a mention in a food magazine with his signature scallops, and his business partner Mike finally sees profits within reach. The only problem is Harry refuses to recreate his masterpiece for the masses. Mix in a shrewd restaurant consultant and a waiter with dreams of his own, and it all goes to hell in this hilarious and insightful new play that asks us to consider where art ends and commerce begins. 

Separate Tables by Terence Rattigan (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 8w, 3m)
The two one acts Table by the Window and Table Number Seven – when presented together – depict the hijinks and heartbreak following the residents of a shabby genteel hotel on England’s coast. This is 1950s theatre at its finest: chatty, formal and with deliciously oblique subtext.

Shake, Ripple & Roll: A Rock and Roll Musical by Jenifer Toksvig and David Perkins (US/UK)
(Short Musical, Comedy / 5w, 5m plus ensemble)
Unless Joey Nobody and private detective Dirk Manley find Angelo’s will in time, bogus heir Deanna la Domme, the glamorous film star, will sell Angelo’s New York ice cream parlor to Crazy Flavors. So get out the bobby socks and join Chuck and the gang as they rock in this sizzling, hour-long musical for schools and youth groups.

Staff Meal by Abe Koogler (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 2w, 1m, 5 any gender)
A surreal dark comedy about the stories we tell and the ways we take care of each other when the world grows dark. Mina and Ben, two strangers who frequent the same café, strike up a conversation and decide to have dinner together. But something strange is happening in the city outside. Mina and Ben find themselves in the only place still open: a mysterious restaurant where service is an art, the chef may be a god, and food is a portal to other better worlds.

Superior Donuts by Tracy Letts (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy/Drama / 2w, 7m)
Arthur Przybyszewski owns a decrepit donut shop in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago. Franco Wicks, a black teenager who is his only employee, wants to change the shop for the better. This comedy-drama explores the challenges of embracing the past and the redemptive power of friendship.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street by C.G. Bond (US/UK) 
(Full-Length Play, Melodrama / 3w, 8m) 
Bond’s adaptation of the classic melodrama positions the murderous barber – who also bakes pies – as a wronged man seeking vengeance against his oppressors. The hit play served as inspiration for the hugely successful Broadway musical. 

That Which Isn’t by Matthew Freeman (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 1w, 2m)
Helen meets with James in a quiet field somewhere far from the city. Years later, she meets with Marcus in a crowded restaurant in Los Angeles. These two goodbyes explore the process of losing the people we love, and how we remember the people we don’t in this graceful psychodrama.

The Art of Dining by Tina Howe (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 6w, 3m)
Cal and Ellen are the owners and sole staff of a small, elegant gourmet restaurant. Cal’s main preoccupation is paying back the $75,000 it cost to start it up, and that means packing in the customers. Chef Ellen is preoccupied with the food’s quality and stopping Cal from sampling the ingredients. The diners act out their own private dramas over dinner, and their conversations are exquisite burlesques of contemporary attitudes in this spicy compote of social satire.

The Big Meal by Dan LeFranc (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 3w, 3m, 1 girl, 1 boy) 
Somewhere in America, in a typical suburban restaurant on a typical night, Sam and Nicole first meet. Sparks fly. And so begins an expansive tale that traverses five generations of a modern family, from first kiss to final goodbye. A stunning, big-hearted play that spans nearly eighty years in roughly ninety minutes, The Big Meal tells the extraordinary story of an ordinary family.

The Counter by Meghan Kennedy (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 1m)
There’s Paul, a retired firefighter who goes to the same counter every morning for a few cups of coffee, and there’s Katie, who’s always there to serve him. What begins as the sharing of one secret grows into a life-affirming friendship. A warmly funny and yearning play about unlikely connection and embracing the hope and joy of human connection.

The Dinner Party by Neil Simon (US/UK) 
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3w, 3m) 
Neil Simon’s contemporary adult farce, set in a swanky Parisian restaurant, moves deftly from over-the-top comedy to heart-stopping realism. Tossed together in a private dining room, five people have a sneaking suspicion that this unorthodox dinner party will forever change their lives.

The English Only Restaurant by Silvio Martinez Palau, Sergio Garcia Marruz and Saul Spangenburg (US)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3w, 8m)
This wild farce set in a restaurant in Queens mauls both English and Spanish as it lampoons upwardly mobile Latinos, snobbish Gringos, trendy restaurants, and just about everything else.

The Kitchen by Arnold Wesker (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 12w, 18m)
It is early morning in the empty kitchen of a large restaurant. A night porter wakes and lights the ovens. One by one, the chefs enter, and slowly they work to prepare lunch. The waitresses drift through, lay-up, and prepare to serve. Cameo stories emerge. Personalities clash. Momentum mounts. Service begins. Crescendo of movement. A play about people and their relationship to work.

The Matchmaker by Thornton Wilder (US/UK) 
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 7w, 9m) 
Wilder’s uproarious farce about love and money stars the irrepressible busybody Dolly Gallagher Levi who inspired the Broadway musical Hello, Dolly! Through Dolly’s subtle machinations, several unlikely couples come together to find happiness in 19th-century New York. The play features an epic restaurant scene at the Harmonia Gardens, perfect for dinner and a spectacle. 

The Night Shift Before Christmas by Isaac Gómez (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 1w)
Meet Margot, a 30-something Tejana who works at a beloved whata-sized Texas burger joint. The Christmas Eve overnight shift is her personal tradition – even if that means spending the holiday dealing with grumpy drive-thru customers and an equally grumpy robotic Santa. But when her dead best friend Jackie Marley drops by to warn her of impending late-night visits by spirits, Margot has no choice but to roll with the punches and confront the very Scrooge she’s become. It’s a Christmas Eve like none other in this holiday show filled with humor and heart set in H-town.

The Spitfire Grill by James Valcq, Fred Alley & Lee David Zlotoff (US/UK)  
(Full-Length Musical, Drama / 4w, 3m) 
Based on the hit 1996 film, The Spitfire Grill is a heartwarming and inspirational musical tale of redemption, perseverance and family. Set in a small Wisconsin town, the show features a gorgeous, soulful score and several strong roles for women.

The Weir by Conor McPherson (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 1w, 4m)
In a bar in rural Ireland, the local men swap spooky stories in an attempt to impress a young woman from Dublin who recently moved into a nearby “haunted” house. However, the tables are soon turned when she spins a yarn of her own.

When You Comin’ Back Red Ryder? by Mark Medoff (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 5m)
The scene is an all-night diner in a sleepy southwestern town, the time early Sunday morning, when the night attendant, young Stephen (Red) Ryder, is about to turn his duties over to his daytime counterpart, Angel. Her friend Lyle, who runs the filling station and motel across the road, stops by for breakfast, followed by an affluent young couple en route to New Orleans in this commanding drama.

Discover more irresistible plays and musicals on Concord Theatricals in the US or UK.