If you haven't booked your Valentine's Day restaurant reservations yet, you're in trouble. Lucky for you, our local theater companies have shows much more unique than prix fixe menus anyway. From improv to Broadway to Internet escapades, they have something for every sexual predilection. Some of them even have dinner, too.

at Purple Onion
How did you meet your girlfriend or boyfriend, wife or husband? Was it in a chat room, at Folsom Street Fair, or did he help you pick up the contents of your bag after you performed a perfect face plant in front of him? Love telling the story to all your friends and even perfect strangers? Well, the actors of How We First Met will never get tired of hearing it. At each performance, an audience couple is interviewed about their true-life love stories while actors re-create the romantic--or embarrassing--moments in improvised sketches and songs. Past stories have included a mid-30-year-old mom who divorced her husband for an 18-year-old guy, and a man who proposed to his girlfriend as a sort of finale to the actors' performance. This year the audience gets to pick which couple's story will be staged, and a special February 14 show includes a three-course dinner. How We First Met is for everyone, no matter your sexual or political preference, and no matter whether you've been married for years or just suffered through your first date. And it sure beats The Bachelor.
Through February 25

How We First Met audience couple Taylor Forester and Ken Fried watch their story being re-created. Photo by Tracy Dethlefs.

How We First Met