Neighborhood Bites: Lazy Susan Dinner Theatre

The staff is just as proud of their home cooking as they are of their shows at the Lazy Susan Dinner Theatre.

Theatre manager Karol Kaldenbach points out that both “dinner” and “theatre” are in the name of the business that has been a Lorton mainstay in one form or another since the 1950s.

The Lazy Susan Inn started as a restaurant, later added an antique shop (though now closed, a number of pieces are still housed at the Lazy Susan and are used in the shows), and then became a dinner-theatre in the mid 1970s when those businesses became fashionable, Kaldenbach said.

Picking the right show, as well as serving good food, are both key to keeping the Lazy Susan in business through good economic times and bad.

Dinner theatre is “still a very affordable and enjoyable evening out with good food,” Kaldenbach said, comparing it to the cost of dinner and a movie. And she is particularly proud of the fact that Lazy Susan makes its food from scratch, even baking its own bread. “We take dinner very seriously,” Kaldenbach said.

Lazy Susan serves a Pennsylvania-Dutch buffet that features a variety of salads, chicken, beef, fish, pasta, potatoes, vegetables and homemade desserts. An item or two is changed with each production.

“We were restaurant people,” Kaldenbach noted. “It was the first part of our success.”   

Equally important is choosing the right production.

Each year begins with an Agatha Christie play, then a big spring show. This spring’s production is “Big River,” the Tony Award-winning musical based on the adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The summer show is a smaller production, followed by another big show in the fall. The last few years, the Lazy Susan has ended the year with “A Christmas Carol.”

Lazy Susan prides itself on being a family theater, Kaldenbach said, so productions are chosen with that in mind.

Kaldenbach didn’t have a theater background when she began working at the Lazy Susan 30 years ago because it was closer to home and let her spend more time with her young daughter. She has a business background, which has proven essential to managing a theater.

 “You need the business people” for things like negotiating contracts, Kaldenback notes. She also is a certified tour professional and works closely with the tour and travel industry to bring groups to the Lazy Susan. Those tours have been crucial to the theater’s success, along with the relationships it has built with season ticket holders.

As theater manager, Kaldenbach greets the tour groups and makes sure to tell the school groups that visit how to behave. She especially likes having young people in the audience, to give them what is often their first exposure to theater in an intimate setting.

At the same time, Lazy Susan needs its local fans as well. Kaldenbach acknowledges that the building could use some updating, but management chooses to put the money into the food and the costs of putting on the production.

Another challenge is finding new patrons. Lazy Susan does some newspaper advertising and some television, but attracting customers is something they work on “all the time,” Kaldenbach said. “The challenge in 2011 is how do you reach people?”

It helps that Lazy Susan has been very careful over the years, Kaldenbach said. “We’ve been around a long time.”

. Richmond Highway and Furnace Road. 703-550-7384. Open Tuesday-Sunday, closed Mondays. Some Sunday performances are matinees. Call or go online for showtimes. Prices: $41.95 for adults Tuesday-Friday and Sunday, $44.95 on Saturday, youths 11 to 15 are $35 and children 10 and under are $25. Price of admission includes dinner (with tea and coffee), show and tax. Drinks are extra.