Stage Write

Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre is thrilled to announce its 2016 season. Run for Your Wife It all kicks off Dec. 29 with the return of Run for Your Wife , the funniest show ever performed at Beef & Boards. In this uncanny comedy, a cab driver manages to maintain two marriages – keeping each wife a secret from the other – until one mishap leads to an unraveling of his precise schedule. His double life is in danger of being revealed as complications and hilarious situations pile up faster than he can handle them. This fast-paced farce is on stage through Feb. 7 and is rated PG-13 for adult humor. Sister Act Opening Feb. 11 is the first of two new shows in 2016, Sister Act . Based on the hit movie starring Whoopi Goldberg, this musical follows disco diva Deloris Van Cartier who witnesses a murder and is put in protective custody – in a convent! Disguised as a nun, Deloris breathes new life into the church with her disco moves and singing talent, but blows her cover ...

Our church basement ladies are back in a brand new installment. The lovely ladies of the Lutheran church won Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre audiences’ hearts when they first appeared in 2010. This is the fourth show in the series and the crowd favorites are sure to fill seats again. The clean, quirky humor is entertaining to anyone who has grown to love them over the past few years. It’s now 1960 and the girls are cooking, singing and swapping advice about life in their small Midwestern town. This installment feels a bit more forced than the others. Most people who attend the show will already know if they love the Church Basement Ladies series or not. This one doesn’t deviate from what we’ve come to expect, but it also doesn’t offer quite as much depth.   Mavis, played by Karen Pappas, remains the stand out character. Her earnest nature and brash sense of humor are both endearing and hilarious. Licia Watson also returns as Vivian, the group's matriarch, and has a g...

    The Church Basement Ladies are back for a third time at Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre. This installment, Away in the Basement, is actually set in 1959, before the other two chronically. B&B’s audiences have grown to love the devoted crew and their playful banter. The ladies, so proud of their Norwegian heritage and Lutheran traditions, keep their churches’ events running smoothly.   The whole cast is back for a third installment with the exception of Lisa Bark, who is replaced by Hillary Smith as Beverly. Karen Pappas returns as Mavis, a hilarious woman with her own particularly style. Vivian (Licia Watson) is the group's matriarch with a strong aversion to change. Katherine Proctor is Karin, Beverly's mother and Vivian's deputy.     The Church Basement Ladies shows are always at their best when the women are supporting each other through both the heartbreaks and celebrations life brings. Vivian shows her softer side in the second act an...

The Lutheran ladies are back with more songs and exclamations of "Uffda!" After last year's show " Church Basement Ladies " proved such a popular musical, Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre decided to offer audiences a second helping. The same cast has returned to bring their characters back to life. Part SNL Church Basement Lady and part sweet Midwestern hometown tale, the plot follows four very different women through a few life changes in 1969 and 1970. One of the show's greatest strengths is the diverse group brought together on the stage. One woman is old, another young, a couple have been married for years, another is a newly wed, another widowed. In addition to the females, there is the pastor, who still trying to find his footing in the church as America moves into a new decade. Each character brings a unique perspective to the table. The cast seem like it's having fun, which is crucial for the success of a show like this. The playful atmosphere th...

Over the past three years Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre's audiences have enjoyed the antics of the Smoke in the Mountains clan every summer. This year "Church Basement Ladies" fills the big shoes vacated by the Sanders clan. Though the "Smoke" shows are a tough act to follow, the cooking ladies of a Minnesota Lutheran church rise to the challenge. The show is set in the 1960s in the church basement's kitchen as four women prepare meals for a fundraiser, funeral and a wedding. Dressed in sensible shoes and aprons, the women cook up heaping Norwegian dishes. In one musical number they celebrate the joys of cooking with butter and doing the "Pale Food Polka." The cast works wonderfully together. The oldest of the group struggles to accept changes in the church, while the youngest tries to square her parent's beliefs with her own. Karen Pappas portrayal of Mavis is especially fun. She brings an impressive energy to her role, which provides c...