The Way Off Broadway Dinner Theater, also known as Way Off Broadway or WOB, is a regional dinner theater located in Frederick, Maryland, United States. The theater was first launched in 1990 as the Keynote Dinner Theatre under the direction of Don Wiswell with a production of the musical Grease.
- Venue
- Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre
- Town
- Frederick, US
The Way Off Broadway Dinner Theater, also known as Way Off Broadway or WOB, is a regional dinner theater located in Frederick, Maryland, United States. The theater was first launched in 1990 as the Keynote Dinner Theatre under the direction of Don Wiswell with a production of the musical Grease. It was not until 1995, when the theater was purchased by the partnership of Pete Peterson, Terrance Warfield, and Jim Watkins, that it was renamed Way Off Broadway. The following year, Way Off Broadway's Children's Theatre was created, opening with an original production of Sleeping Beauty. It was also in 1996, a year and a half after they bought the theater, that Peterson, Warfield, and Watkins sold WOB to Susan Thornton, the creator of the Children's Theatre. Way Off Broadway was purchased by the Kiska family in 2002, beginning their ownership of the theater with a production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. In 2026, the theater was sold to the owners of The Washington County Playhouse (the sister theater of the original Keynote Dinner Theatre), Shawn R. and Laura J. Martin. The first production of their inaugural season was The Hollow by Agatha Christie. Each season, Way Off Broadway produces five to six Broadway-style mainstage productions. These range from the classics by Rodgers and Hammerstein and Kender and Ebb, to contemporary and current stage shows by Andrew Lloyd Webber and David Yazbek. Way Off Broadway has been credited with bringing many theatrical premieres to the area. In 2009, WOB was one of the first theaters in the country to obtain the rights to produce a regional theater production of the musical comedy The Wedding Singer. Neil Simon’s The Goodbye Girl - The Musical, La Cage aux Folles, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Mel Brooks’ The Producers, All Shook Up, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels all made their western Maryland regional theater debuts at WOB. During 2024, as part of WOB's 30th Anniversary Season, the theater produced the first producti