There have apparently been nine musicals featuring the Church Basement Ladies (CBL) to date with the most recent premiering in 2022. The original had a book by Jim Stowell and Jessica Zuehlke, music and lyrics by Drew Jansen and the sequels are based on the lives and writings of Janet Letnes Martin and Suzann Nelson. Obviously these are wildly popular to have spawned this many sequels and Church Basement Ladies Productions have been mounted in all 48 contiguous States and Canada. Beginning with the first sequel, the book for the musicals were written by Greta Grosch who usually appears in the shows as the character of Mavis Gilmerson, though not in the current production. The Church Basement Ladies in A Mighty Fortress is Our Basement is playing now through November 12th at the Ames Center in Burnsville. I’m not the target audience for this show, which I assume is retired Lutherans, as evidenced by the shows schedule which consists largely of weekday matinees. Did I have fun with the show? Yes to some extent, though I think overall I enjoyed some of the performers more than the actual show.
The CBL are three woman Vivian Snustad a widow, Mavis Gilmerson a farmer, and Karin Engelson a wife and mother. The story of this installment set in 1960 in rural Minnesota focuses on the the confirmation, and I suppose coming of age from the Lutheran perspective, of Karin’s daughter Beverly and the second marriage of the town Pastor. It would seem like there are some parallels to be drawn between the young teenagers, first feelings of adulthood and romance, and the middle aged pastor finding love again in middle age. But in true Lutheran fashion, if they’re thinking of those themes, they are keeping them on the inside and instead talking about Jello salads and marshmallow surprise. Many of the scenes feel only tangentially connected, there are the plot through lines but we skip ahead in time and then some scenes actually appear to be told in flashback. It all feels like an excuse to spend time with the CBLs who have some funny lines and sing some songs and as the Pastor says towards the end, keep living their lives.
The performance I saw two of the three CBL’s were understudies and maybe that accounts for a sense of them just playing out scenes rather than inhabiting the characters fully. Though they all did good work, if you’re going to have a show that’s basically just about the interactions of Lutherans in a church basement or kitchen, it should feel like they’ve been through the years together. One of the strongest of the cast is Alexa Johnson as Beverly, who reminded me of a young Zooey Deschanel. She has a really sweet song with Dorian Chalmers who plays her mother Karin called “Growing Up, Letting Go” it’s the song in the musical that most felt like something you could lift out of the show and enjoy on it’s own and both actors sound great. The other cast member that really caught my eye, maybe by being the odd man out, was Gregory Eiden as the Pastor. He looks and behaves like a Pastor, and yes I understand that is the aim of acting, but what I mean is he’s playing the character and so his moments feel more authentic and thus his moments of comedy play better. The CBL are not terribly exaggerated, but they are not very far removed from caricatures, which would work better if the comedy was broader and more fast paced. I don’t want to give the impression I didn’t enjoy the show, it had its moments and was diverting enough. It’s a great show to take the Grandmother too, nothing too risque, and if she’s in her 80’s or 90’s she might feel more of a connection to these CBL’s from the past.
The Church Basement Ladies in A Mighty Fortress is Our Basement runs through November 12th and then returns again January 4th through February 14th at The Ames Center. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.ames-center.com/cbl.html
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