'Church Basement Ladies' Take Audiences To New Laughs

BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4) - Boulder's Dinner Theatre is never afraid to step away from the musical theater standards and try something new.

There were the hits "Midlife -- The Crisis Musical" and "Slow Dance with a Hot Pickup." Now there is "Church Basement Ladies."

"'Church Basement Ladies' is a light and sweet collision between 'Lake Woebegon Lutherans' and 'Nunsense.' Sort of a behind the pulpit musical of what really goes on downstairs during services and before the coffee klatch," CBS4 Critic at Large Greg Moody said.

"Church Basement Ladies" is a sweet and easy-going musical tale based on the book "Growing Up Lutheran."

"It's easy to identify with the ladies downstairs and the situations they face mainly because every church of every kind has the steel magnolias who run things -- and we all know them," Moody said.

Despite the light weight of the musical, Boulder's Dinner Theater has stocked it with one of their strongest casts -- Barb Reeves, Heather Marie Doris, Alicia Dunfee and Wayne Kennedy as the flighty pastor in the middle of it all.

Moody says it is Bren Eyestone Burron who simply steals the show away. Her comic timing and her continuing bit of going through the change -- her battle with the church furnace, show some of the best comic timing Moody has seen in years.

"She is absolutely wonderful and it is a treat to see a master at work," Moody said. "She steals the show away."

"Church Basement Ladies" is onstage at Boulder's Dinner Theatre with a "Moody Deal." Use the promo code "Moody" on the phone at (303) 449-6000. Then, buy one and you get the second ticket and dinner for half off. Some restrictions apply. The deal runs through March.

"Good deal on a fun little show. All I could say to myself was, 'I know all these ladies and one of them was my mother,' " Moody said.