“I guarantee they are going to love it.”

These are the words of Don Hodgins, executive director of Fanny Hill’s dinner theater, referring to the upcoming show Star Spangled Girl, which begins on September 6 at Eau Claire’s premier destination for dinner and a show. From Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Neil Simon,  Star Spangled Girl is a throwback piece set in the 1960s.

“It’s a cute story chock full of clever dialogue from one of my all time favorite playwrights,” Hodgins said of the storyline. The plot follows Andy and Norman, two radicals living in 1960s-era San Francisco, and their strange love triangle with the girl living in the apartment next door.

Like most of Simon’s works, the play is a comedy, and “no one writes comedy better than Neil Simon,” according to Hodgins. Trouble arises when the southern, quintessentially “all American” Sophie moves next door to a duo of radical magazine editors, later prompting a friendship between the three and Sophie’s eventual employment with the men’s “fight the system” magazine, Fallout. As a former Olympic swimmer and outspoken patriot, Sophie and Fallout’s contrasting views create even more problems when Norman falls for Sophie and she, in turn, falls in love with Andy. Reportedly inspired by a political argument Simon overheard between writer Paddy Chayefsky and another woman on the street, Star Spangled Girl hits all the right notes as election season comes to a head within the next few months.

“Star Spangled Girl isn’t as well known as some of [Neil Simon’s] other works,” said Hodgins, attributing its lack of familiarity to the earlier release of Simon’s blockbuster The Odd Couple. This, however, is what Hodgins finds so appealing about the play. “It hasn’t been widely produced for a while, so it’s fresh for our audiences.”

With a long and storied history in our great state, dinner theater is truly an iconic way to spend a Wisconsin night.

Star Spangled Girl will run Thurs., Fri., and Sat. nights from Sept. 6 - Oct. 28 at 8pm, plus Sunday brunch shows and the occasional weekday matinee show at 1:45pm at Fanny Hill Dinner Theatre. If you’re dining, your reservation will be between 5:30pm and 7:00pm.