{"id":2456,"date":"2025-09-09T22:36:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T22:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theatreone.ca\/?p=2456"},"modified":"2025-09-09T22:52:28","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T22:52:28","slug":"2456","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theatreone.ca\/index.php\/2025\/09\/09\/2456\/","title":{"rendered":"Pump Boys and Dinettes \u2013 A Slice of American Pie from a time not so long ago"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Tuesday, September 9th, 2025<\/div>\n<div><strong>For Immediate Release<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-2457\" src=\"https:\/\/theatreone.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Media-Release-Image-1-300x260.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"260\" srcset=\"https:\/\/theatreone.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Media-Release-Image-1-300x260.jpg 300w, https:\/\/theatreone.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Media-Release-Image-1-1024x889.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/theatreone.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Media-Release-Image-1-768x667.jpg 768w, https:\/\/theatreone.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Media-Release-Image-1-1536x1334.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/theatreone.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Media-Release-Image-1.jpg 1731w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/div>\n<div><strong>Pump Boys and Dinettes \u2013 A Slice of American Pie from a time not so long ago<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><strong>Key Information<\/strong><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>Nanaimo\u2019s TheatreOne presents the musical <strong><i>Pump Boys and Dinettes <\/i><\/strong>as the first show in their 2025\/26 season Series.<\/li>\n<li>There will be three performances on Friday, October 10th\u00a0at 7:30 pm, Saturday, October 11th\u00a0at 2:00pm and 7:30pm.<\/li>\n<li>Performances are held at the Malaspina Theatre on the Vancouver Island University campus.<\/li>\n<li>Tickets are $35 and are available through the TheatreOne Box Office.<\/li>\n<li>online at <u><a id=\"OWA82b58f41-68f7-eb8f-f2bb-27dd36f4c8ad\" class=\"ms-outlook-linkify OWAAutoLink\" title=\"http:\/\/www.theatreone.ca\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theatreone.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-linkindex=\"1\">www.theatreone.ca<\/a><\/u><\/li>\n<li>by phone \u2013 250-754-7587 \u2013 noon to 5pm Monday to Friday<\/li>\n<li>in person at the TheatreOne office \u2013 60 Wharf Street \u2013 noon to 5pm Monday to Friday.<\/li>\n<li>at the door \u2013 beginning one hour prior to the performance<\/li>\n<li>\u201cPay What You Feel\u201d pricing is available for the 7:30 Friday performance only.<\/li>\n<li>Seating is limited to availability<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>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 \u2013\u00a0<em><strong>Pump Boys and Dinettes<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Through infectious melodies and charming storytelling, these six friends share their lives, loves, and dreams along North Carolina\u2019s Highway 57. From the rollicking \u201cDrinkin\u2019 Shoes\u201d to the touching \u201cSister,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no traditional plot here \u2014 just slice-of-life vignettes and foot-stomping music that celebrate the simple joys of everyday life. It\u2019s apple pie served with a side of humour and a whole lot of heart.<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019s simple pleasures. <strong><i>Pump Boys and Dinettes<\/i><\/strong>\u00a0isn\u2019t just a night at the theatre \u2014 it\u2019s a roadside attraction you won\u2019t want to miss!<\/div>\n<div><strong><i>Pump Boys and Dinettes <\/i><\/strong>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.\u00a0 TheatreOne acknowledges the financial support of the Province of British Columbia.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TheatreOne acknowledges and thanks the Snuneymuxw First Nation, on whose traditional territory we live, create, and perform.<\/p>\n<p><\/strong><strong>Contact:<\/strong><\/div>\n<div>Michael Cade \u2013 Artistic and Managing Director<\/div>\n<div>250-754-7587 \u00a0<u><a id=\"OWA9568295d-8b4f-b31d-b290-20e5beb2c564\" class=\"OWAAutoLink\" title=\"mailto:michael@theatreone.ca\" href=\"mailto:michael@theatreone.ca\" data-linkindex=\"2\">michael@theatreone.ca<\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/u><strong>About TheatreOne<\/strong><\/div>\n<div>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\u00a0and\u00a0local\u00a0businesses. 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.<\/p>\n<p><strong>About First Impressions Theatre<\/strong><\/div>\n<div>In 1982, Michael and Eileen Smith, Neil Boucher and Warde Ashlie sat down with Eric Rosen and made plans to produce a student play. . .\u00a0 and that was the beginning of First Impressions Theatre. They became a registered non-profit society on February 3, 1983.<\/div>\n<div>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.<\/p>\n<p>Artistic Director, Claude A. Giroux, came along in 2017 and immediately started\u00a0attracting a high caliber of talent, and with growth in mind, introduced touring productions to a wider audience beginning with <i>Forever Plaid<\/i>\u00a0in 2020, and subsequent touring productions of <i>Ring of Fire<\/i>, <i>Always Patsy Cline<\/i>\u00a0(which toured Alberta and BC). First Impressions Theatre\u2019s <i>The 39 Steps<\/i>\u00a0and <i>Songs For Nobodies<\/i>\u00a0were featured in TheatreOne\u2019s 2024\/25 season, and their production of the film noir musical, <i>Gunmetal Blues<\/i>, closes off TheatreOne\u2019s 2025\/26 season.<\/p>\n<p><strong>About <i>Pump Boys and Dinettes<\/i><\/strong><\/div>\n<div><i>Pump Boys and Dinettes<\/i>\u00a0is 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.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-2458\" src=\"https:\/\/theatreone.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/media-release-image-2-300x240.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/theatreone.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/media-release-image-2-300x240.jpg 300w, https:\/\/theatreone.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/media-release-image-2-1024x819.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/theatreone.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/media-release-image-2-768x615.jpg 768w, https:\/\/theatreone.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/media-release-image-2.jpg 1061w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><i>Pump Boys and Dinettes \u2013 <\/i>history<br \/>\n<\/strong>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&#8217;s principal author and composer recalled in 2010,<\/div>\n<div>\u201cI was a scuffling songwriter\/guitarist and Mark Hardwick was a piano player\/actor . . .\u00a0 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 &#8220;tired businessman&#8221; who had come for the drinks, the steaks, and the waitresses dressed in classic Western saloon girl attire. On slow nights we&#8217;d play original songs I was writing for Mark&#8217;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.\u201d<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tuesday, September 9th, 2025 For Immediate Release Pump Boys and Dinettes \u2013 A Slice of American Pie from a time not so long ago Key Information Nanaimo\u2019s TheatreOne presents the musical Pump Boys and Dinettes as the first show in their 2025\/26 season Series. There will be three performances on Friday, October 10th\u00a0at 7:30 pm, Saturday, October 11th\u00a0at 2:00pm and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bBlocksCursorData":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theatreone.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theatreone.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theatreone.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theatreone.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theatreone.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2456"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/theatreone.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2464,"href":"https:\/\/theatreone.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456\/revisions\/2464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theatreone.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theatreone.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theatreone.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}