DINNER THEATER LIKELY WON'T OPEN HERE IN '93

A dinner theater company that planned to begin presenting musicals and plays to Cape Girardeau audiences by spring probably won't open a theater here at all in 1993.

Dick McHargue, the Hannibal dinner theater owner who last April announced his plan to open the Mark Twain Dinner Theater in Cape Girardeau, said Friday the project is "in a hold position."

"It's extremely unlikely that we would open in '93," McHargue said from Hannibal.

He has operated the Mollie Brown Dinner Theater in Hannibal for the past seven years, and was looking for a way to expand his business.

Unlike the Hannibal theater, which presents a cabaret show over a nine-month season, McHargue intended to present musicals and plays in Cape Girardeau year-round.

Actresses and actors also would have served as waitresses and waiters. The theater was expected to employ about 15 people.

But in the months since April, McHargue said, "Some things didn't work out." He referred to "locations and financing in regard to those locations."

He refused to specify which buildings he was considering. "I had two or three locations, and I'm still interested in them," he said.

McHargue said his dinner theater business is heavily dependent on pre-selling shows to motorcoach companies. The hold-up in acquiring a building to house the theater made pre-selling impossible, he said.

"In order for me to comfortably make an investment into a community, I need to pre-sell to motorcoaches," he said. "The problem was getting everything together to be sure we have a product."

He said motorcoach pre-selling must be done at least a year in advance.

Last March, McHargue came to Cape Girardeau to produce "test" shows from the Hannibal theater. "I was quite pleased with that, and that led to our decision to establish something in Cape Girardeau," he said.

He has been working with the Chamber of Commerce and the Visitors and Convention Bureau to find locations. Because of the double function of a dinner theater, the buildings McHargue looked at had to fit special requirements, particularly for seating in a horseshoe configuration.

But finding suitable buildings wasn't a problem, McHargue said.

"I couldn't quite get my ducks in a row," he said.

Calling himself "a bit of a fatalist," McHargue concluded that opening a dinner theater in Cape Girardeau in 1993 "just wouldn't work."

Whether the theater will open in 1994, McHargue said, "I really don't know."

Lyn Muzzy, director of the Visitors and Convention Bureau, said he understood the financial and scheduling problems McHargue faces because his business depends so heavily on tourism.

"Certainly we're disappointed," Muzzy said.

If his prime locations still don't work out, McHargue said there are still other locations that may.

"We haven't totally given up on it," he said.