CHURCH BASEMENT LADIES Comes to Beef & Boards

 Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre has all of the ingredients for fun this spring with its production of Church Basement Ladies, the show about the stalwart women of a rural Lutheran church. This is the original recipe that got the Church Basement Ladies series cookin’, and it’s now on stage, ready to enjoy.

Hilarity takes over when the four Church Basement Ladies do their best to organize food, stave off potential disasters, share and debate recipes, keep the pastor on due course and try to solve the problems of their changing rural Minnesota church in 1964. Together they tackle both food and food for thought while managing a record breaking Christmas dinner, the funeral of a dear friend, a Hawaiian Easter fundraiser and a hot July wedding.

Returning to reprise their roles from the original production at Beef & Boards are Licia Watson as the matriarch Vivian Snustad, and Karen Pappas as the unforgettable Mavis Gilmerson. Joining them in the church basement kitchen are Carrie Neal (A Christmas Story, White Christmas, Beauty and the Beast) as Karin Engelson, and Anya Burke as Karin’s daughter, Signe. John Vessels (Beauty and the Beast, The Addams Family, Smoke on the Mountain) joins these ladies in the role of Pastor E.L. Gunderson.

Based on the Scandinavian Lutheran humor writings of Janet Martin and Suzann Nelson, authors of “Growing Up Lutheran,” the women of Church Basement Ladies are familiar and down-to-earth characters who can be found in any denomination. 

Church Basement Ladies is rated G and is on stage for 37 performances through May 18 in the intimate space of Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre. Tickets range from $57 to $85 and include Chef Larry Stoops’ dinner buffet and select beverages. Children under age 3 are not admitted.