by phone – 250-754-7587 – noon to 5pm Monday to Friday
in person at the TheatreOne office – 60 Wharf Street – noon to 5pm Monday to Friday.
at the door – beginning one hour prior to the performance
“Pay What You Feel” pricing is available for the 7:30 Friday performance only.
Seating is limited to availability
The hits continue as TheatreOne is thrilled to bring a slice of apple pie, along with a double cup of coffee, to Nanaimo with the first show of our 2025/26 season – Pump Boys and Dinettes.
A smash hit on and off-Broadway, this crowd-pleasing country-western musical features Prudie and Rhetta Cupp, from the Double Cupp Diner, singing and performing along with the talented boys from the gas station next door.
Through infectious melodies and charming storytelling, these six friends share their lives, loves, and dreams along North Carolina’s Highway 57. From the rollicking “Drinkin’ Shoes” to the touching “Sister,” every song pulls you deeper into their small-town world where the coffee is always fresh, the gas pumps are always flowing, and friendship is always on the menu.
There’s no traditional plot here — just slice-of-life vignettes and foot-stomping music that celebrate the simple joys of everyday life. It’s apple pie served with a side of humour and a whole lot of heart.
So . . . fill both your tank and your spirit with this uplifting musical that reminds all of us to slow down, connect with others, and savor life’s simple pleasures. Pump Boys and Dinettes isn’t just a night at the theatre — it’s a roadside attraction you won’t want to miss!
Pump Boys and Dinettes is generously sponsored and supported by Kal Tire, the City of Nanaimo, Pinnacle Pharmacy, CHLY, Signage, the BC Live Performance Network, The 460 Group, the British Columbia Arts Council, and the Nanaimo News Bulletin. TheatreOne acknowledges the financial support of the Province of British Columbia.
TheatreOne acknowledges and thanks the Snuneymuxw First Nation, on whose traditional territory we live, create, and perform.
TheatreOne has been bringing professional theatre to Nanaimo and the mid-Island for more than 40 years. We engage diverse local audiences of all ages and persuasions, including the very young, and in doing so support theatre professionals and local businesses. We work with playwrights from British Columbia and across Canada to foster development of new Canadian works; we premier new productions; and through our support to touring artists, we give Nanaimo audiences access to great theatre developed elsewhere.
About First Impressions Theatre
In 1982, Michael and Eileen Smith, Neil Boucher and Warde Ashlie sat down with Eric Rosen and made plans to produce a student play. . . and that was the beginning of First Impressions Theatre. They became a registered non-profit society on February 3, 1983.
After ten years of performing in various venues all over the North Shore and Burnaby, the company moved into the Deep Cove Cultural Centre where they have been operating since March of 1992.
Artistic Director, Claude A. Giroux, came along in 2017 and immediately started attracting a high caliber of talent, and with growth in mind, introduced touring productions to a wider audience beginning with Forever Plaid in 2020, and subsequent touring productions of Ring of Fire, Always Patsy Cline (which toured Alberta and BC). First Impressions Theatre’s The 39 Steps and Songs For Nobodies were featured in TheatreOne’s 2024/25 season, and their production of the film noir musical, Gunmetal Blues, closes off TheatreOne’s 2025/26 season.
About Pump Boys and Dinettes
Pump Boys and Dinettes is a musical written by a performance group also called Pump Boys and Dinettes, consisting of John Foley, Mark Hardwick, Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, John Schimmel, and Jim Wann. The members directed and starred in the Broadway production.
Pump Boys and Dinettes – history The musical was created by two friends who worked at The Cattleman restaurant in New York City and dramatizes their experiences there. It started as a two-man act and then expanded. As Jim Wann, the show’s principal author and composer recalled in 2010,
“I was a scuffling songwriter/guitarist and Mark Hardwick was a piano player/actor . . . Mark and I were unemployed and happy to take a job playing five nights a week in the Cattleman Lounge, which was attached to a restaurant on one of the darker blocks west of Grand Central. Our mission was to play country standards to entertain the “tired businessman” who had come for the drinks, the steaks, and the waitresses dressed in classic Western saloon girl attire. On slow nights we’d play original songs I was writing for Mark’s emerging comic persona . . . Mark came in one night wearing a matching dark blue twill shirt and trouser outfit [and] I went out and bought one just like it. By and by we had oval patches over the pockets with our names on them . . . So we became guys who worked at the gas station . . . Our imaginations were taking over, and our Pump Boys repertoire began to grow. The Cattleman management soon grew tired of this nonsense and showed us the saloon door.”
