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August 17, 2012

WHALEY: DDP's ‘Church Basement Ladies 2 — A Second Helping’ may leave you overstuffed with corn

By CHARLES WHALEY newsroom@newsandtribune.com The News and Tribune Fri Aug 17, 2012, 10:11 AM EDT

CLARKSVILLE — If you sampled Derby Dinner Playhouse’s “Church Basement Ladies” last August you may have had your fill of what those feisty Minnesota Lutheran ladies cooked up as they sang, danced, gossiped, and waxed sentimental about their lives.

Yet here they are again in “Church Basement Ladies 2 — A Second Helping” that will leave you feeling rather overstuffed and in need of an antidote to the warmed-over victuals.

What is being served up here is pure old-fashioned corn designed to elicit sympathy without the slightest bow to subtlety or sophistication. Cheap unearned laughs are based on grotesque physical comedy by a couple of ladies and the good-hearted minister [Cary Wiger] who plays a guitar and does Elvis moves with a broom when not expressing shock at glimpses of the ladies’ underwear when they bend over.

Yet it must be said that the audience at Thursday’s press opening rewarded the show with hearty guffaws and enthusiastic applause. Tastes do differ, of course.

This sequel [be warned -- there are two more that have been written] puts the minister and the four basement ladies in 1969 and 1970 when Vietnam War protests and demands for equal rights for women were changing the world. Its four scenes revolve around a church banquet, a mission festival, a congregational meeting, and spring cleaning. An offstage death of a husband and the birth of a baby to his and his wife’s daughter are milked for every cliché imaginable.

As in the original show, the four women who prepare and serve church meals for weddings, funerals, and all other things scheduled are elderly unbending Vivian [previously played by the estimable Rita Thomas, now played by powerhouse Elizabeth Loos, so terrific as the nasty Miss Hannigan in Derby Dinner’s recent “Annie”]; eager-to-please Karin [Janet Essenpreis, now in charge of the kitchen previously ruled by Vivian]; Karin’s daughter Beverly [Michelle Johnson, back from the city to live in the rural community with her husband], and good-old-girl Mavis [Tina Jo Wallace, klutzy and bumbling with her menopausal hot flashes and her scary way of wielding a kitchen knife].

Producer/director Bekki Jo Schneider has put together a fast-paced show with costumes by Sharon Murray Harrah that couldn’t be bettered. But the heavy-handed songs hardly register. Praise be, however, to whoever interpolated that “Hats off, here they come, those beautiful girls” bit from Stephen Sondheim’s “Follies.”

The “Church Basement Ladies” franchise was inspired by the books of Janet Letnes Martin and Suzann Nelson. This sequel was written by Greta Grosch with music and lyrics by Dennis Curley and Drew Jansen.

“Sometimes I feel my brain has turned to mush,” says Michelle Johnson’s character at one point.

Some people will have that same reaction to this show.

“Church Basement Ladies 2 -- A Second Helping” runs through Oct. 7. For tickets and information: 812-288-8281, toll free 877-898-8577, or www.derbydinner.com.