Going to a show is great. Eating beforehand is the problem. Typically the choice is between scarfing down a restaurant meal in the 60 minutes between work and curtain, or skipping dinner and struggling to keep your mind on the performance and off your growling stomach.

Unless you're attending one of the 10 shows linked to the Annenberg Center for the three-year-old University Square Dinner/Lecture series. Then all you have to do is show up in the theater lobby two hours before the show for a performance-related buffet dinner and lecture -- like the 115 people who chowed down on Bahian cuisine before Daniela Mercury's Oct. 21 Annenberg concert.

A majority of the dinner/lecture events sell out -- a fact apparently not lost on Annenberg's competitor, the Kimmel Center, which began a series of themed $29 dinners/craft workshops in the Academy of Music Ballroom for kid-friendly shows such as Peter Pan and Doctor Dolittle this past spring.

Convenience is clearly part of the appeal for theatergoers.

"We like the idea of not having to look for two parking spaces," explained Annenberg dinner/lecture-goer Roberta Rifkind of Philadelphia.

Series manager Roy Wilbur says the pre-performance event exploits the Annenberg's "niche as a performing arts center that's affiliated with a major university" by utilizing Penn faculty and staff as lecturers. It's also helped the center build relationships with local food businesses like Marathon Grill, Plough & the Stars and Fatou & Fama -- all of which have catered multiple dinners there, on an almost for-cost basis. Fatou Wilson of Fatou & Fama says she believes the dinners are a good marketing tool for her restaurant's African/soul food cuisine.

The themed-dinner concept is obviously easier to pull off with the Annenberg's staple ethnic music and dance performances than plays like Eve Ensler's The Good Body.

Indeed, a number of women in the mostly female Ensler dinner-lecture crowd criticized Marathon Grill's choice of comfort food -- chicken a la king, meat loaf and chocolate chip cookies -- to accompany an evening about women's body images.

But considering the play's message about learning to live joyously even in a less-than-perfect body, and the manner in which The Good Body ends (with Ensler savoring a dish of high-fat, high-calorie ice cream), Marathon seemed only off in the type of sweet dessert it served.

The next Annenberg dinner/lecture precedes the Nov. 19 Masters of Caribbean Music concert and will feature food by Caribbean Cuisine and a talk about Caribbean culture. Cost is $15 above the cost of the concert ticket. Call 215-898-3900 for reservations.