The Stage

Menopause the Musical

Published Thursday 19 April 2007 at 13:00 by Lisa Martland

While the tone of this ‘celebration of women and the change’ is pretty light-hearted, American writer/producer Jeanie Linders obviously wants to send women a positive message - that beyond the menopause and all its tiresome side effects, life can be something to savour.

And if the four female performers onstage, together with the ladies from the audience who join them for a dance at the finale, are anything to go by, she has a point. It certainly makes a welcome change to come across a piece that the more mature woman can enjoy and identify with.

Indeed, that is just what the predominantly female audience had no problem doing on opening night. It is just a shame that, despite some funny lines and occasionally clever musical parodies of songs from the sixties, seventies and eighties, Menopause the Musical is, on the whole, a very flimsy piece of theatre. Tenuous plot devices are put into play as four women meet and spend hours in the Marble Arch branch of M&S, hanging out in the ladies’ room and cafe, talking about everything from hot flushes and insomnia to vibrators and the size of their thighs.

Beyond the stereotypes and character names, we discover little personal detail about Power Woman (Miquel Brown), Soap Star (Samantha Hughes), Rutland Housewife (Su Pollard) and Earth Mother (Amanda Symonds). All four relish the comedy and give strong vocal performances, even if Michael Larsen’s direction and Patty Bender’s choreography can be uninspired, but a sprinkling of genuine emotion would have been welcome amid all the silliness.