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In Burn's Heir, the actors playing the Simpsons family at Burn's behest complain of the difficulty of capturing their many idiosyncrasies. Burns then says:

Yes. Well, just get it right, or ya’ll be back doing Come Blow Your Horn at the Westport Dinner Theatre!

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"Dinner Theatre" is considered the last refuge for failed actors... at least in general folklore and common parlance.

Dinner theater (sometimes called dinner and a show) is a form of entertainment that combines a restaurant meal with a staged play or musical. "Dinner and a show" can also refer to a restaurant meal in combination with live concert music, where patrons listen to a performance during a break in the meal. In the case of a theatrical performance, sometimes the play is incidental entertainment, secondary to the meal, in the style of a night club, or the play may be the main feature of the evening, with dinner less important or, in some cases, optional.

Basically, the threat is that if the performers do not get their act together they will have no choice but to go back to performing at the "lowest" form of their craft they can get.

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  • One thing, is the "Westport theater" here considered to be to some extent unsophisticated?
    – apg
    Jul 29, 2021 at 9:09
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    Westport is just a generic name. The whole concept of dinner theatre is generally considered unsophisticated.
    – Paulie_D
    Jul 29, 2021 at 10:12
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    Is Westport a generic name, or is it a city 50 miles away from New York, where a failed Broadway actor might retreat and have to act in musicals, like "Come Blow Your Horn," that haven't been performed on Broadway since the 1960s? I think you're right about the general meaning, but the details really make the joke.
    – Juhasz
    Jul 29, 2021 at 21:02
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    Like "Springfield"? of which there are hundreds in the US....Westport is just as generic. There is of course a "real" Westport just as there are a lot of real "Springfields".
    – Paulie_D
    Jul 29, 2021 at 21:06

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