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Dinner theater is a form of entertainment that combines a restaurant meal with a staged play. Sometimes the play is incidental entertainment secondary to the meal, in the style of a night club, or the play may be a major production.

Professional actors and technicians work in dinner theater to gain resume experience, along with amateurs who are there as an avocation.

Audience participation may be a factor in dinner theater, in which the diners may be encouraged to sing or dance with some of the actors. In some cases, diners may be included in a minor way in the plot by exchanging small talk or otherwise interacting with the actors.

Dinner theaters are located all over the United States. The 1970s were the heyday of dinner theaters which provided popular regional entertainment for local audiences. Particularly popular were the dinner theaters who used former movie names to star in the productions. Van Johnson, Betty Grable, Dorothy Lamour, Cyd Charisse, Don Ameche, Lana Turner, Roddy McDowall, Tab Hunter, Jane Russell, Dana Andrews, and Ann Miller are just of few of the stars of the golden era of Hollywood who found success in the field. Also popular were stars and character actors from well remembered television series from earlier years such as Ann B. Davis, Nancy Kulp, and Frank Sutton. Burt Reynolds owned a dinner theater in Florida in the early 1980s, as did actor Earl Holliman in Texas. The boom seemed to end in the mid 1980s, with a number of them closing and many no longer able to afford celebrities, even faded ones, to star in their productions.

Howard Douglass Wolfe is credited with being the "Father of Dinner Theatre". An entrepreneur from Virginia, Wolfe created a Barn Dinner Theatre franchise beginning in the 1960s that included 27 theaters in New York, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Louisiana, and Georgia. The franchise featured his own architectural barn designs, his patented "magic stage" that descended from the ceiling, and thematic decor replete with antique farming implements. Wolfe, who died in 1989, is buried at Roselawn Cemetery in Marion, Virginia, and a large memorial there cites "Father of Dinner Theatre" among his accomplishments.

The Barn Dinner Theater in Greensboro, NC was founded in 1962 and is the oldest and longest-running dinner theater in America. It and the Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre in Nashville are two of the last remaining from a franchise chain that used to be 27 Barns from New York to Texas. The Magic Stage is an invention patented by Howard Wolfe in the 60s. The stage disappears into the ceiling in 20 seconds and reappears fully set for the next scene. Chaffin's Barn is one of the two theatres left in the United States with the Magic Stage.

During the franchise phase of The Barn, all the productions were staged at the studio in New York, and then sent out to the individual theaters. At the break-up of the franchise, the production facilities were moved to the present location in Nashville and have remained there since.

Back in its early days the performance's cast not only acted on stage, they were the waiters and waitresses. Actors were selected and cast in New York City and resided in living quarters above the theater for the duration of the productions.Robert De Niro reported acted at The Barn in Greensboro, NC for a while. Management reported that De Niro was also fired from The Barn one night, right in the middle of a show. Mickey Rooney and many other well-known performers have also done gigs at The Barn.

The dinner theatre scene is currently enjoying a revival in New York City. Chauncey O'Neil, who began staging his own shows in his loft apartment on the north side of Williamsburg in 1999, is credited with this revival. The first shows were so low budget that O'Neil could not afford a waitstaff and served the audience alone while performing a one man show. He credits the Barn Dinner Theater in NC (see above) as an influence and hopes that one day he can have a Loft Theatre Chain across the East Coast.