Dinner & a Show: Chew

As one competitor puts it: “It’s like a standing-still parade. We just happen to be eating food.” Over the course of several years, Montreal playwright Sarah Segal-Lazar interviewed dozens of competitive eaters in Canada and the States to figure out what drives them to stretch their stomachs beyond comprehension. Inspired by London Road and A Chorus Line, co-creators Segal-Lazar, Anika Johnson and Andrew Kushnir have discovered the ideal container for the excesses of the sport: a musical. Chew takes documentary theatre to new places, and competitive eating to new limits. Whether it’s tucking away tamales in Texas or pulverising pretzels in Providence, the reasons we do unreasonable things can be most surprising of all.