The Man Who Came to Dinner

The Man Who Came to Dinner

November 5 - 8, 2025

By Moss Hart & George S. Kaufman

In the small town of Mesalia, Ohio in the late 1930s, the Stanley family has invited a dinner guest: the famously outlandish radio orator and traveling lecturer Sheridan Whiteside. The family’s delight is short-lived as their guest immediately slips on a piece of ice on their doorstep and badly injures his hip. The egotistical and larger-than-life Whiteside suddenly finds himself confined to the Stanley home for weeks during the Christmas holiday, forced to put his tour, career, and lavish lifestyle on hold with only his whipsmart, no-nonsense secretary Maggie Cutler as company.

With the frazzled Stanleys under threat of an immense personal injury lawsuit, Whiteside commandeers the home and terrorizes the family with his nonstop demands. Chaos ensues as Whiteside unleashes a string of insults, invites a parade of eccentric guests, and intrudes in personal matters. When Maggie is distracted by the charming local newspaperman, Whiteside throws his full efforts into disrupting the budding romance that threatens to separate him from his valuable secretary. He manipulates the beautiful star actress to come to Mesalia to pit her against Maggie for a showdown the likes of which the small town has never seen.