The Marion Palace Theatre is ready to serve up a dish of laughter when Church Basement Ladies, a new musical comedy, takes the stage on Sunday, November 16 at 3:00 p.m.

Billed by the Topeka Capital-Journal as “a loving tribute, with clever songs and hilarious choreography,” Church Basement Ladies is a new “heavenly” musical comedy celebrating the hard-working women found in church kitchens all across America.

Church Basement Ladies, a celebration of the church basement kitchen -- and more importantly the women who work there -- features four distinct characters and their relationships as they organize the food and the problems of a rural Minnesota church.

From the elderly matriarch of the kitchen to the young bride-to-be learning the proper order of things, this musical offers a touching, funny look into their lives as they handle a record breaking Christmas dinner, the funeral of a dear friend, a Hawaiian Easter Fundraiser, and a steaming hot July wedding.

They stave off potential disasters, share and debate recipes, instruct the young, and keep the Pastor on due course while thoroughly enjoying, and tolerating, each other. Funny and down to earth, audiences will recognize these characters and their eccentricities in the very women who keep their own church kitchens afloat.

Based on materials by authors and humorists Janet Letnes Martin and Suzann Nelson, Church Basement Ladies is produced by Curt Wollan. Wollan is also the producer of the highly successful hit musical How To Talk Minnesotan The Musical.

Of Church Basement Ladies, Wollan explains, “I know about these ‘Steel Magnolias’ of the church, because my mother was one of them while I was growing up! She serves as the inspiration behind these efforts.”

Tickets to Church Basement Ladies are $20 each and may be purchased at the box office 270 West Center Street, by phone (740)383-2101 or on line at www.marionpalace.org. Groups purchasing 20 or more tickets will receive a 10% discount.

A portion of the proceeds from this performance will go directly to provide clean, safe water for Africa through a contribution by the Lutheran churches of the ELCA to the African Water Well Projects.