Take a church, blend in a basement, stir in some ladies loaded with larger-than-life personalities and pepper it with potluck dishes. To top it off, add an appreciative audience and mix in a buffet meal. The result? A recipe for an entertaining experience -- Murry's Dinner Playhouse's presentation of Church Basement Ladies in A Mighty Fortress (Is Our Basement).
In addition to the locals who are a part of the cast and crew, the show, which runs through June 20, also stars an Arkansan among its creators.
Church Basement Ladies in A Mighty Fortress (Is Our Basement)
Today-June 20, Murry’s Dinner Playhouse, 6323 Colonel Glenn Road, Little Rock. Dinner: 6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m. Sunday matinee, 5:30 p.m. Sunday. Show times: 7:45 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 12:40 p.m. Sunday matinee (matinee also the first, second and third Wednesdays of a production), 6:45 p.m. Sunday.
Tickets: $32-$36, children 15 and under $23; show only $25, children $15
(501) 562-3131
Little Rock native Drew Jansen has written the music and lyrics for each of the five shows in the series of musical comedies. All of the shows are based on the book by Greta Grosch and originally opened at the Plymouth (Minn.) Playhouse. This show was written in 2011, making it one of the newer shows in the series to be presented.
This production, directed and choreographed by Don Bolinger and produced by Ike McEntire, marks the third in the series Murry's has staged. The dinner theater earlier presented the original Church Basement Ladies (the last show the theater's artistic director Glen Gilbert directed at the theater) followed by Church Basement Ladies, A Second Helping.
"There are several others in this series of wonderful musicals that follow the troubles and trying times of hardworking ladies who man the kitchen in a small church," Gilbert says, adding that Grosch appeared at Murry's in one of the first productions of Smoke on the Mountain the theater ever staged.
Joined by spouse Jimmy Martin, Jansen, 54, recently moved back to Little Rock where he still has a lot of family members residing (including his sister Anne, former news anchor for TV station KTHV, Channel 11).
The composer, musician, actor, singer and writer had TV credits including Let's Bowl, Factory Accident Sex and Mystery Science Theater 3000. In addition to the Church Basement Ladies, he has also been involved in the Plymouth Playhouse's production of How to Talk Minnesotan.
The Catholic High School graduate attended St. John's University in Collegeville, Minn., where he studied music, theater and Latin from 1979 to 1983.
"I've always enjoyed music but never originally considered it as a career," Jansen says, adding that he began college majoring in psychology. But halfway through his first semester, he realized music was his passion and switched his major to music theory and composition.
He later attended the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis and in 1985 he was hired as the music director for Dudley Riggs' Brave New Workshop satirical theater in Minneapolis and Troupe America Inc.
With a book by Jim Stowell and Jessica Zuehlke and music and lyrics by Jansen, Church Basement Ladies was inspired by the book Growing Up Lutheran by Janet Letnes Martin and Suzann Nelson, published in 1997.
In the musicals, which span from 1964 to 1979, characters ranging from the elderly matriarch of the kitchen to the young bride-to-be teach each other life lessons and make their way through everyday life crises, amid the sharing of recipes.
"This whole thing really honestly took us by surprise," Jansen says about the first show that debuted in 2005. "The first one was supposed to be one show and it continued on and kept getting extended, to nine months, a year, two years. The fifth one is currently on national tour," he says, noting local theaters like Murry's also can buy the rights to stage it.
"We have a great time putting these together. But I think we've taken it just as far as we want to," Jansen says of the shows for which he writes 10 to a dozen songs. "We don't want to just keep cranking them out because we can."
In addition to the income Jansen receives from the royalties, he also works locally doing voice-over work.
"I'd like to get back into performing," he says, adding that his first exposure to performing came in 1977, when his father, the late Dr. G. Thomas Jansen, opened That Little Restaurant (now known as The Afterthought).
And, yes, Jansen says he plans to attend Murry's production of the musical for which he penned the songs and is looking forward to it.
Style on 05/19/2015