Dinner Theater

CAMBRIDGE — Chances are you’ve seen, heard of, or desperately tried to avoid shows with names like “Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding.’’ Now comes “Conni’s Avant Garde Restaurant,’’ which marries the most blithely un-self-conscious brand of kitsch there is — dinner theater, home of Tony and Tina — to the most painfully self-conscious brand of culture there is: avant-garde performance. The result is a knowing spoof of both styles that makes for an entertaining, if overlong, evening at Oberon, a club on the outskirts of Harvard Square.

**½ MARGIN CALL Written and directed by: J.C. Chandor Starring: Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley, Demi Moore, Simon Baker, Stanley Tucci, and Jeremy Irons At: Boston Common, Coolidge Corner, Kendall Square Running time: 109 minutes Rated: R (language of a profane and, for the financially disoriented, arcane nature) The first person fired by the big investment bank in "Margin Call" is a risk analyst. His name is Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci)

**½ MARGIN CALL Written and directed by: J.C. Chandor Starring: Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley, Demi Moore, Simon Baker, Stanley Tucci, and Jeremy Irons At: Boston Common, Coolidge Corner, Kendall Square Running time: 109 minutes Rated: R (language of a profane and, for the financially disoriented, arcane nature) The first person fired by the big investment bank in "Margin Call" is a risk analyst. His name is Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci)

‘This is not dinner theater!’’ The cast of “Conni’s Avant Garde Restaurant’’ delivers this message at the beginning of the show, which tells the story of what happens to an aging performance artist, Muffin Character Hanshake, when she decides to become a mother. But it is theater with dinner. A number about making a baby involves a soup pot and an egg dropped from high above — and then your actual soup is served. It’s chilled cucumber, made with yogurt, lime, and basil.

How to get there Plymouth is 40 miles south of Boston. Take Interstate 93 south to Route 3 south to exit 6A. What to do For general information online, visit www.visit-plymouth.com. Plymouth Winery 170 Water St. 508-746-3532 Monday-Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sunday noon-5. Plymouth Bay Winery 114 Water St. 508-746-2100 Monday-Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday noon-5. Plymouth Colony Winery 50 Pinewood Road 508-747-3334 Monday-Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sunday noon-5.

On paper, it would have looked like a list of 15 songs. In real life, at her concert at Sculler's on Thursday, Audra McDonald delivered 15 tiny theatrical productions -- each a ravishing miniature of character and story line, subtext and emotional arc. We already know what kind of magic McDonald can work with a stellar show tune. Sondheim's "The Glamorous Life" and "Not a Day Goes By" and Jason Robert Brown's exquisite "Stars & the Moon" are staples of the four-time Tony winner's repertoire, and she sang them during this rare nightclub appearance with her signature...

CAMBRIDGE - An arabesque with your dessert? While dinner theater has been a popular genre for years, dinner dance has never quite caught on. Theater can be done in an area the size of a tabletop if need be, but dance performances generally require room to stretch and a forgiving floor. Spread out a 10-foot-square marley floor in the right room, throw in some rudimentary theatrical lighting, trot out eight dynamite dancers in charming routines, and precede it with a terrific meal, though, and you have the makings for a very tasty show.

‘This is not dinner theater!’’ The cast of “Conni’s Avant Garde Restaurant’’ delivers this message at the beginning of the show, which tells the story of what happens to an aging performance artist, Muffin Character Hanshake, when she decides to become a mother. But it is theater with dinner. A number about making a baby involves a soup pot and an egg dropped from high above — and then your actual soup is served. It’s chilled cucumber, made with yogurt, lime, and basil.

ST. JOHN, New Brunswick -- For many US visitors, the seaside province of New Brunswick is an overlooked pass-through on the way to somewhere else, an unpretentious place of farms, forests, and rivers wedged between the more-hyped destinations of Nova Scotia and Quebec, a perennial bridesmaid in the panoply of Canada's tourism options. There's no walled Old World outpost like Quebec City here, no Cabot Trail that lures vacationers to Cape Breton's spectacular ocean vistas, no cafe sophistication like Montreal.

Eastern Nazarene College will present "Madrigals Feast," its annual dinner theater performance, at 6:30 p.m. Friday and 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Quincy's Central Baptist Church. Presented as part of the South Shore Performing Artist Series, costumed singers will perform madrigal Christmas choral arrangements as the audience is treated to a sit-down dinner. Tickets are $10, $7 for seniors and children. To make a reservation, call 617-745-3715 or visit www.southshoreperformingartistseries.com.

CAMBRIDGE — Chances are you’ve seen, heard of, or desperately tried to avoid shows with names like “Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding.’’ Now comes “Conni’s Avant Garde Restaurant,’’ which marries the most blithely un-self-conscious brand of kitsch there is — dinner theater, home of Tony and Tina — to the most painfully self-conscious brand of culture there is: avant-garde performance. The result is a knowing spoof of both styles that makes for an entertaining, if overlong, evening at Oberon, a club on the outskirts of Harvard Square.

CAMBRIDGE - An arabesque with your dessert? While dinner theater has been a popular genre for years, dinner dance has never quite caught on. Theater can be done in an area the size of a tabletop if need be, but dance performances generally require room to stretch and a forgiving floor. Spread out a 10-foot-square marley floor in the right room, throw in some rudimentary theatrical lighting, trot out eight dynamite dancers in charming routines, and precede it with a terrific meal, though, and you have the makings for a very tasty show.

On paper, it would have looked like a list of 15 songs. In real life, at her concert at Sculler's on Thursday, Audra McDonald delivered 15 tiny theatrical productions -- each a ravishing miniature of character and story line, subtext and emotional arc. We already know what kind of magic McDonald can work with a stellar show tune. Sondheim's "The Glamorous Life" and "Not a Day Goes By" and Jason Robert Brown's exquisite "Stars & the Moon" are staples of the four-time Tony winner's repertoire, and she sang them during this rare nightclub appearance with her signature...

How to get there Plymouth is 40 miles south of Boston. Take Interstate 93 south to Route 3 south to exit 6A. What to do For general information online, visit www.visit-plymouth.com. Plymouth Winery 170 Water St. 508-746-3532 Monday-Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sunday noon-5. Plymouth Bay Winery 114 Water St. 508-746-2100 Monday-Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday noon-5. Plymouth Colony Winery 50 Pinewood Road 508-747-3334 Monday-Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sunday noon-5.

COURAGEOUS ★★ (Comcast Movies: All Movies) Filmmaker Alex Kendrick preaches the importance of fathers in a release from Sony Pictures' religious-demographic division. Kendrick plays a sheriff's deputy whose circle is hit by tragedy, prompting them to resolve to be all that they can be, paternally speaking. The film needn't be so blunt, given the ability Kendrick has for sentimental drama. (PG-13; runs through April 18) TOM RUSSO KILLER ELITE ★★ (Comcast Movies: All Movies)

"When Do We Eat?" may be another sitcom disguised as a movie, but it does manage to find a new holiday -- Passover -- for the Holiday Dinner Fiasco. Yes, the Stuckmans are having their first Passover Seder since their last one ended in the angry destruction of dishware three years ago. But in the name of the Lord and for our amusement, they're giving it another try. The family's eldest son, Ethan (Max Greenfield), lost his investment banking money and has turned to Hasidism in an evangelical sort of way. As a celebration of her son's showy new Orthodoxy, Peggy Stuckman (Lesley Ann Warren)