There's a new option for date night in the Fox Valley area.

The Comedy Shrine in Naperville recently launched a Sunday night improvisational musical dinner theater. Every show is unique in that the music and dialogue is inspired by audience suggestions, and acted out by an ensemble of veteran improvisational actors.

David Sinker, owner of The Comedy Shrine, envisioned the dinner theater as an affordable night of great entertainment for couples. The dinner package includes pizza, pasta, salad and dessert from Lou Malnati's Pizzeria. Dinner begins at 6 p.m. and the show starts at 7 p.m.

"I've been wanting to do a dinner theater since we opened; it seemed like a form of entertainment that's not available in the area," Sinker said. "We have had experience on New Year's Eve or with corporations where they have food served and they see a show, and I thought, 'We can do this.'"

He turned over the direction of the project to Mike Shreeman, who has taught at Second City and has experience with musical improvisation.

"It's an interesting concept. It combines all the elements you'd see in a musical ... (and) comedy and tragedy," he said. "Because it's improv, the audience is very instrumental in creating the story line. The actors will come to them for suggestions. The story and song itself are based on audience suggestions."

He understands that economic times are tough, and he wanted to "keep it as affordable as I could. $32 for dinner and a play, I think is reasonable."

The play, he says, is based on "Othello."

"Therein lies the tragedy," he said. "The comedy is really supplied by audience suggestions. So you have comedy, tragedy, interactive improvisation and farce. It depends on audience suggestion on how outrageous the comedy becomes in the show."

There are four actors and a keyboard accompanist.

Sinker won an Emmy Award for a science program he wrote for WGN called "M.S.I. Science Zone." He has written for and acted in "just about every medium you can imagine," he said, and was an actor and director at Second City.

He hopes people will remember the dinner theater during the holidays when relatives are in town.

"This would be a nice, fairly inexpensive night out," he said. "We're really excited about this new show, as we are very excited about all our shows at The Comedy Shrine."

Other shows include Ladies Night, Open Mic, Family Night, Whose Line, and Whose Line Naughty. The club also hosts birthday parties, fundraisers and corporate events.

"We're trying to appeal to various ages," he said. "We're trying to do special nights. The dinner theater demographic will probably be married couples and date nights. The family show is geared for kids and families. Whose Line is great for all ages."