Watch a Broadway-quality show alongside a delicious meal at the Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre in Lancaster.
Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre is a Lancaster tradition of nearly 40 years, offering Broadway-caliber productions alongside an all-you-can-eat buffet—or on Thursdays, a four-course plated meal—that changes with every show.
Throughout the year, the theater presents eight major musicals and plays on its main stage, ranging from timeless classics to exciting new productions, along with additional concerts and family-friendly performances.
More than 150,000 visitors attend a show at Dutch Apple each year, from Lancaster theater regulars to out-of-town visitors drawn by the theater’s accolades, which include being named among the best dinner theaters in the country by USA Today.
And with no pillars or obstructions blocking views from any of the dining area’s 320 seats, there’s no bad seat in the house.
The history of Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre
Founders Deborah and Thomas Prather had produced theater shows throughout Pennsylvania for decades before opening Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre. “It was our dream that we would have one place [for] theater,” Deborah told WITF’s The Spark last year, so that rather than the pair traveling the region for shows, “everybody would come to us.”
That vision became reality when Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre opened in 1987, just off Route 30 in Lancaster. The theater’s first show, “A Chorus Line,” debuted that spring.
The choice signaled the theater’s intentions, because 1975’s “A Chorus Line” was widely considered groundbreaking, even subversive, for its ensemble-driven structure and focus on concept over plot.
At the time, “[d]inner theater was a graveyard of old standards, the safe Rodgers and Hammerstein canon,” longtime Lancaster theater critic Jim Ruth recalled for the theater’s 20th anniversary in 2007. “To do ‘A Chorus Line’ as their very first show was a bold decision” that made clear “[t]hey wanted to produce more legitimate theater,” he said.
Planning your visit
Dutch Apple performances run throughout the week, with both matinee and evening options available.
Adult tickets start at $78 and include your meal. All matinee performances, as well as evening shows Friday through Wednesday, feature an all-you-can-eat buffet of fresh salads, filling main dishes, and tasty desserts. Children’s theater shows offer a kid-friendly brunch buffet. The buffet opens an hour and a half before curtain.
Thursday performances include a four-course plated meal served at your seat. Tickets for Thursday shows without dinner are also available at a reduced price of $55.
Main stage shows in 2026
You can experience the wonder of the Dutch Apple stage—and its signature dinner—for yourself during the remainder of the 2026 season. There are seven big-ticket shows still to come, ranging from classic Broadway musicals, jukebox hits, and crowd-pleasing adaptations of popular movies.
Little Shop of Horrors
Dates: Feb. 13 to March 21, 2026
“Little Shop of Horrors” began as a successful, Off-Broadway rock musical based on the 1960 film of the same name, and it helped launch the Disney careers of composer Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman. The story follows Seymour, a nerdy flower shop employee who pines for his coworker. Seymour’s life changes after he discovers a man-eating plant and is forced to reckon with the consequences of feeding its growing appetite.
Oklahoma!
Dates: Mar. 27 to May 10, 2026
“Oklahoma!” is a classic Broadway musical from Rodgers and Hammerstein that helped shape the genre. Set in the Oklahoma Territory in the early 1900s, the story follows farm girl Laurey Williams as her romance with the charming cowboy Curly McClain is complicated by the menacing farmhand Jud Fry.
All Shook Up
Dates: May 22 to Jun. 20, 2026
A jukebox musical set in the 1950s, “All Shook Up” features the songs of Elvis Presley set against a plot about the repressed residents of a Midwestern town whose lives turn upside down when a guitar-playing, leather-clad stranger arrives and challenges social norms. It’s not merely inspired by Elvis—the story is based in part on Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night.”
Mary Poppins
Dates: Jun. 26 to Aug. 8, 2026
Inspired by the character created by P.L. Travers and the Disney movie, the musical “Mary Poppins” follows the magical nanny of the same name as she changes the lives of the Banks family with imaginative adventures and beloved songs like “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”
Pretty Woman: The Musical
Dates: Aug. 14 to Sept. 24, 2026
“Pretty Woman: The Musical” is a Broadway adaptation of the 1990 romantic comedy about the unlikely relationship between a Hollywood sex worker and a wealthy businessman. Like the film, the musical challenges societal norms about social class as it presents a modern-day fairy tale.
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
Dates: Sept. 30 to Nov. 7, 2026
A jukebox musical about the life of the singer-songwriter, “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” chronicles King’s journey from precocious teenage songwriter to chart-topping artist. The score is peppered with engaging renditions of King’s songs and other popular hits from the era.
Holly Jolly Holiday
Dates: Nov. 13, 2026, to Jan. 3, 2027
“Holly Jolly Holiday” is an original holiday musical that celebrates the winter season. The “hometown Christmas revue,” as Dutch Apple describes the show, also includes a visit from a special guest—Santa!
