Review: Dutch Apple Brings On A MIGHTY FORTRESS IS OUR BASEMENT

Some shows never die, and some, more than that, inspire sequels and become franchises. Such is the way of CHURCH BASEMENT LADIES, which has spawned four offshoots of the original. The third offshoot of the original play inspired by Janet Letnes Martin and Suzann Nelson, written by Greta Grosch, is A MIGHTY FORTRESS IS OUR BASEMENT. A musical, the words and music by Drew Jansen, while not the stuff of which original Broadway cast albums are made, prove to be pleasantly funny, as is the show itself.

Although the series is intended to poke gentle fun at the foibles of mid-twentieth century Midwestern Lutherans - and it certainly succeeds at that - it is even more a nod to the women of all religious groups whose contribution to their faith is their kitchen skills, and not always their social skills. In A MIGHTY FORTRESS IS OUR BASEMENT, the cooking is for a confirmation banquet and a wedding, and the social skills at which our cooks fail include driving, reading mail in a timely fashion, and dealing with the pastor's impending wedding. They also have a few issues dealing with each other, but that's a running thread in the series.

At Dutch Apple, Sharon Connelly plays Mavis, a farm woman with a good heart, a firm hand with a mixing spoon, and almost no social graces. Her bête noir is the elderly Vivian (Diana Wilde), who likes everything, at all times, to be a certain way - namely, hers. Worse than Mavis is the pastor's fiancée, who showed up from the Twin Cities to be a parish aide. Vivian is scandalized by the romance, and possibly even more by the engagement and wedding. Sarah Cammerata is Karin, the middle-class wife and mother who puts her effort into hot dishes and Jello molds for the church, who now also contends with a terrified teen daughter Beverly (Alison Nusbaum), scared witless of her anticipated Confirmation oral examination. It's hard to tell if she's more afraid of being asked a hard question or walking headlong into the adulthood that confirmation implies.

Greg Eiden, playing the pastor, has, undoubtedly, the hardest role - it's always difficult to be the man in the henhouse, or in this case, in the kitchen. Vivian has her eye on scandal, Karin has her eye on propriety, and Mavis is trying to be helpful in exactly the worst way possible. Beverly is just trying to survive her new high heels.

Whether it's Beverly leading the Luther League at the county fair, Karin learning to drive, Vivian finding the Catholics' blackberry syrup, or Mavis rescuing the pastor's trousers (no, it's not what you think), the stories of these adventurers into the brave new world of 1960 north of Minneapolis are both heartwarming and funny, ranging from gentle humor to all-but-bawdy hilarity. It stays clean - these ladies are indeed old-fashioned "ladies," not women.

Diana Wilde, new to Dutch Apple but not to the area (she's been at Allenberry Playhouse, where she was unforgettable as Vernadette in DIXIE SWIM CLUB) is the show stealer here; Vivian is hell on wheels as she attempts to maintain her status as elder priestess of the kitchen cabal. Her dogged investigation of the Catholic church's kitchen is perhaps the highlight of a very amusing show. She's also a CHURCH BASEMENT veteran. So is director Curt Wollan, who's directed all the CHURCH BASEMENT LADIES and their pastors and kitchens as Artistic Director of Plymouth Playhouse in Minneapolis, the unofficial home of Vivian and company.

It's warm, it's funny, it's Lutheran. When this reviewer saw the production, a Lutheran church women's group in the audience was bonding with the show in a way that let her know that some things never do change.

Pass the meatloaf and the string bean hot dish at Dutch Apple through November 7. Next on deck is A CHRISTMAS STORY, the seasonal offering through December. Visit DutchApple.com for tickets and information.

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