Moreover, dying's none so dreadful; it's the funking makes it bad.

Flexibility is what keeps the operation profitable, Mr. Funking said.

"The production company was no good, so we got rid of them and became producers," Mr. Funking said.

"It's a fringe benefit for employees that costs a company nothing," Mr. Funking said.

"Community theaters don't have to worry about risk as much as we do," Mr. Funking added.

Now, the theater's producers, Bill Stutler and Bob Funking, are trying something different.

"We also employ 192 additional people who aren't connected with the production, people who run the theater and the restaurant," Mr. Funking said.

Mr. Funking, a Scarborough resident for 16 years, added: "We give them what they want: a great service that's pleasant, easy and convenient, with no parking problems.

Addressing the theatrical status of dinner theater, Mr. Funking said: "We're a theater that serves food, not a restaurant that puts on a show.

"We met over the proverbial water cooler at Kelly Mason, an advertising agency in Manhattan, where we both worked as account executives," Mr. Funking said.

Funk previously worked as head coach of the Funking Dojo wrestling training camp for WWF in Stamford, Connecticut during the 1990s.

"We opened our doors with 'Kiss Me, Kate" and a Small Business Administration loan from Citibank," said Robert J. Funking, one of the theater's owners.

Now, in a new decade that financial analysts are already referring to as the "economically lean 90's," Mr. Stutler and Mr. Funking are about to open a new, enlarged showplace.

He explained that after he attended a dinner theater performance in Huntington, W.Va., he suggested to Mr. Funking that a dinner theater might be something the two could get into.

Success and Risk in Westchester During a tour of the new 449-seat theater last weekend, Mr. Stutler and Mr. Funking were surrounded by about 60 carpenters, painters, woodworkers and plumbers.

A 15-Year Lease Mr. Stutler and Mr. Funking hold a 15-year lease on the new building, which is owned and was built by the Robert Martin Company of Elmsford.

With "A Chorus Line," on Feb. 13, the owners and producers, William B. Stutler and Robert J. Funking, are to open a new, technically upgraded and expanded showplace one block north of the present theater.

That appears to be the credo of William B. Stutler and Robert J. Funking, the producers of An Evening Dinner Theater, which opened here in 1974, the beleaguered year of an energy shortage, a bear market and multiple monetary crises.

William B. Stutler, who shares ownership of the theater with Mr. Funking, said: "We were one of the very few theatrical producers who ever received an S.B.A. loan for an entertainment-based business - also one of the few that paid it back in full.