INDIANAPOLIS – Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre steps into 2009 with a strong season of favorites and the Indiana debut of a new show. From chaotic comedy to fabulous felines, the 2009 season offers fun and fantasy, music and mayhem, orphans and pirates, brotherly love and jealousy, and a celebration of Christmas in July.

Don’t Dress For Dinner opens the season with slapstick on Jan. 7. This frantic farce centers on one married man’s simple desire to have a romantic weekend with his mistress. One by one, all of his careful plans are quickly undone and the result is utterly hilarious confusion. Book by Marc Camoletti, adapted by Robin Hawdon. On stage through Feb. 8.

Beef & Boards is excited to announce the return of one of its most popular shows ever. Cats, the extravagant fantasy by Andrew Lloyd Webber, has enchanted audiences with its amazing music, costumes, characters and choreography, and returns for the first time since it debuted at Beef & Boards in 2004. Based on T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, this Broadway phenomenon won seven Tony Awards, including best musical. No longer just a “Memory,” Cats is on stage Feb. 12 through April 5.

Treasure Island makes its Midwest debut on the Beef & Boards stage (and only second staging ever) April 9 through May 17. This production is an original work by B&B guest director Marc Robin and actor Curt Dale Clark. Their collaboration has created an exciting adventure on the high seas with the young Jim Hawkins as he encounters cutthroat pirates, including the infamous Long John Silver. Book and lyrics by Marc Robin and Curt Dale Clark, music by Marc Robin.

Then the sun comes out for Annie, that lovable orphan with tons of personality, on stage May 21 through July 3. Annie is looking for her parents during the Great Depression, but finds an unlikely Daddy instead. A winner of seven Tony Awards, including best musical, this is Beef & Boards’ 2009 family show, and features $10 discounts on tickets for kids ages three through 15. Book by Thomas Meehan, music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Martin Charmin.