BWW Reviews: Aging Book, Refreshing Cast in MENOPAUSE THE MUSICAL at Bucks County Playhouse

In 2001, Jeanie Linders launched MENOPAUSE THE MUSICAL on an unsuspecting but quickly adoring public. The Off-Broadway musical has been everywhere on tour, and now has a home as well at the Luxor in Las Vegas. The problem with that, simply, is that anyone musical who takes up long term casino residence in Vegas - Cher, Elton John, and the like - is usually a bit over the hill when they get there, and MENOPAUSE is also starting to show its age. Fortunately Linders is set to do a revision of it, but right now, the slightly aching and paining older version is the one on stage.

This year's tour has it at Bucks County Playhouse, where many of the aches and pains of the book and of its really painful character stereotyping are made up for by its notoriously funny song parodies and a really fine cast.

Let's start with Linda Boston, playing the "Professional woman" stereotype. While it's true that Professional Woman is the only woman wearing pants, and that she's the only one who appears to have no discussable relationships, Linda Boston can sing. She can sing soul. She can sing R&B. She can sing oldies. She can belt. It's worth seeing this current production just to hear the woman make a noise. Yes, she's that good.

Backing her up as a joyful noisemaker is Megan Cavanagh (you've seen her in A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN among other places), playing the "Earth mother" character. She's a bit young to have lived through the first Woodstock, but she can sound as if she'd been there on stage. She's also the physical comedy queen of the show, and can easily bring in the most laughs.

Since MENOPAUSE is known for featuring real-aged, real-sized actors, don't hate Cherie Price, who plays the "Soap star" character, for being slim. Her character has all the problems of an entire issue of a celebrity tabloid: a younger boyfriend who may stray, other performers after her part on a TV show, her own fear of aging out of her part, and what to do with those wrinkles - Botox? Plastic surgery? And then there are her night sweats that leave a built-in swimming pool in her bed. Once you've seen her on stage, also don't hate Price because she's dance captain; there's no doubt as to why she is. She can still move with the best of the current Broadway gypsies.

Annette Houlihan Verdolino has the hardest character, "Iowa housewife," which one can only hope will be greatly revised in Linders' upcoming redo - her stereotype is straight out of a 1960s sitcom and is slightly insulting both to the Midwest and to housewives. She's unsophisticated, apparently hasn't read a women's magazine sex article in decades if ever, still wears luncheon suits to go shopping, and hasn't been seen on television since everything started broadcasting in color. Verdolino overcomes the handicap greatly, bringing a freshness and charm to a worn stereotype.

Most of the songs are familiar to everyone in the audience regardless of age, though their topics are specific to women's change of life. "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," which retains its original title, is an ode to rumors about women's ages and health, while "Looking for Food (in All the Wrong Places)" deals with hormonally triggered food cravings. Verdolino, incidentally, sounds like a lovely cross of Dolly Parton and Barbara Mandrell when she lets go on this song.

"Sign of the Times" is a fine piece of work by Verdolino and Cavanagh in particular, just as "Change of Life" ("Chain of Fools") showcases Boston, and the ensemble's "Night sweat" dance routine is consistently bringing down the house.

This all makes it easy to overlook many of the book's flaws, though this writer always cringes for poor "Iowa housewife" and the heavy-handed treatment of her character. There are also more modern stereotypes missing - the later-life working mother hitting her "change of life" with a toddler or toddlers, a non-heterosexual character (surely heterosexual women aren't the only ones who deal with menopause, and surely at least some lesbians shop at Bloomingdale's), some woman of color or Latino woman other than the usually-cast-Black "professional woman". (Surely there is at least one housewife of color in Iowa?) And the show's continual emphasis on hot flashes, despite the fact that one of the characters, like many women, has never had them, and its entire segment on menopause requiring better living through chemistry, whether estrogen or anti-depressants, reflects experiences many women simply don't have.

Still, it's an amusing show, and it's not so female-oriented that men won't be able to get a few laughs at it as well. It's surprisingly free of male-bashing, celebrating women rather than complaining about the opposite sex, and it's relatively gentle, although if you're easily embarrassed by the subject of masturbation, don't bring family members who will be dying to tease you about it after the section on sex. If you see it for no other reason, see it for the cast themselves.

At Bucks County Playhouse, New Hope, through February 1. Call 215-862-2121 for tickets and information, or visit www.bcptheater.org.

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