The Dinner Party is a full-length comedy by Neil Simon. Six people – three hapless couples – are invited to a dinner party at a fancy Parisian restaurant. Their host invited them anonymously and may or may not be one of the guests. They combine to produce tension, laughs and more in a decidedly French dinner party served up in a chaotic mode that only a master of comedy could create.

The Dinner Party relates the story of six guests who are invited to a private dining room in a first-rate restaurant in Paris. Neil Simon's thirty-first play has the biting dialogue and rapidly paced repartee that his fans have come to expect, but The Dinner Party has more serious moments than a typical Simon play. It also has an air of mystery as the diners do not know why they have been brought together . When the first guests arrive, they do not know who the other guests will be or what the group of diners might have in common, but it soon becomes evident that at least four of the invitees are two divorced couples. Who the sixth guest is and why they have all been brought together does not become clear until the final guest arrives. The Dinner Party is about damaged relationships and the possibility of forgiveness and reconciliation; it's funny, sad, and thought-provoking.

The Dinner Party had pre-Broadway engagements in 1999 at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. It premiered in 2000 at the Music Box Theatre and ran for a year on Broadway. The play is regularly performed in regional repertory, high school, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 3 women, 3 men.

What people say:

"A blizzard of one liners.... The audience can bank on some good laughs." — New York Daily News

"Frequently hilarious but also dangerously serious.... An invitation you'll be glad you accepted." — New York Post

About the Playwright:

Neil Simon (1927-2018) was America's most prolific playwright. He had dozens of plays and nearly as many major motion pictures produced. He was showered with more Academy and Tony nominations than any other writer, and is the only playwright to have four Broadway productions running simultaneously. His plays have been produced in dozens of languages, and have been blockbuster hits from Beijing to Moscow. His true success, however, is in his unique way of exposing something real in the American spirit.