Experience the Best of Easthampton Theater Company

The Man Who Came to Dinner was performed June 20-23, 2024 at the Williston Theater in Easthampton. With four hilarious performances featuring a cast of 24 and a stellar production team, TMWCTD treated capacity audiences out audiences to a wildly entertaining farce.  

Sheridan Whiteside – critic, lecturer, wit, radio orator, intimate friend of the great and near great – having dined at the home of the Stanleys, slips on their doorstep resulting in a tumultuous six weeks of confinement. Whiteside turns the Stanley household upside down, forcing everyone in town to cater to his egotistical demands. Meanwhile, his essential assistant has given her notice after falling in love with a local reporter. Whiteside must engage every weapon in his considerable arsenal of guile and manipulation to keep her in his employ – including blackmail, deceit, and the intervention of the glamorous actress Lorraine Sheldon and the elegant British wit of playwright Beverly Carlton.  A three-ring circus of machinations and celebrity appearances ensues - characters that are loosely based on real-life figures.

The Man Who Came to Dinner is a timely satire of celebrity, cult of personality and egotism - with strong relevance to today's fame-obsessed culture. Most recently revived on Broadway with Nathan Lane in the title role, the 2000 production was nominated for a Tony and Drama Desk award. The Man Who Came to Dinner originally premiered on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre on October16, 1939. The production ran for 739 performances and was followed by the hit 1941 movie featuring Bette Davis. A 1980 revival was nominated for Drama Desk Awardsfor Outstanding Featured Actor and Actress in a Play.