 It's Getting
Hot In Here!
Menopause The Musical® makes
its Texas home in San Antonio
By DEBI PFITZENMAIER
Photography DAVID FAHLESON
In some corners of the world, the
silent passage remains just that —
silent. But not in the United States, and
certainly not in Texas anymore. Since
May, Menopause The Musical® has been
entertaining audiences at the Cameo
Center in San Antonio. It’s the state’s first
extended run of the show.
Like chick-lit, this off-Broadway musical
has so little depth one has to wonder
what the appeal is. Yet, appeal is what it
has to the more than eight million people
around the world who have laughed this
show all the way to success.
So what’s it all about? It’s not
Shakespeare, that’s for sure. But there’s
something about it so oddly charming
and riotously funny it’s hard to dismiss.
 The show begins with four women who
meet in New York at a lingerie sale. They
have little in common except they’re all
going through The Change. In 90 minutes
of parodied songs of the '60s, '70s and
'80s, Power Woman (Carla Nickerson),
Iowa Housewife (Katie Anne Harper),
Earth Mother (Jane Haas) and Soap Star
(Melissa Gonzalez) bond as they shop,
kvetch and encourage each other.
SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE
From the looks (and laughs) of it,
most of the audience — about 90 percent
women — have experience with
the ups and downs of menopause —
either because they have been through
it,are going through it or know someone
going through it. That’s part of what
makes the show so appealing. There’s
something for everyone.
Still, questions remain. Are hot flashes
really a topic for discussion? Night sweats fodder for jokes?
Antidepressants something to sing about?
Somehow, this talented foursome pulls it off beautifully. “The show has become a point of relating, a celebration of
a life passage that launches women into a new, exciting
phase of their lives,” says author Jeannie Linders. “Most
women know intuitively what every other woman is facing
with the onset of menopause. But when they are in a theater
with hundreds of women, and they’re all shouting ‘That’s me!’
then they know what they are experiencing is normal. They
call it a sisterhood!”
 LIGHT ON LYRICS
Menopause debuted in a 76-seat, perfume-shop-turned theatre
in Orlando, Fla., in 2001. “It came out of my standing in
front of the freezer singing the words “hot flash” to Rod Stewart’s
Hot Legs,” says Linders.“I was dressed for a formal evening, ready
to walk out the door, and the dripping started. I have a picture
of it … the flapping freezer door, a ballgown and me.”
The fast-paced show makes its way through a collection of 26
re-lyricized baby boomer songs. Disco hit Stayin’ Alive becomes Stayin’ Awake, My Girl is transformed to My Thighs. Beverly
Everett’s It’s in His Kiss (The Shoop Shoop Song) is reprised as “If you
want to know where the fat grams go, it’s on my hips.”
It would have been easy for the performance to preach a
sermon on how menopause isn’t anything other than a new
beginning filled with a history of rich experience, punctuated by
each individual’s unique beauty. But it doesn’t do that. It’s wise
and warm at the same time. It gently uplifts without chastising.
And it’s really, really funny.
 ECONOMIC GENERATOR
The musical, which will celebrate its 100th San Antonio performance
in August, is also giving a lift to the Cameo Center, the
original East side vaudeville stage of the 1940s. During its heyday,
B.B. King, Fats Domino and Louis Armstrong played there.
Menopause is the first long-run, resident show for the venue. “It’s bringing in foot traffic all week long, adding to the synergy
of Sunset Station and making the area a more vital place,” theater
owner Jim Zaccaria says.
Nearby businesses are feeling the impact. “The show is definitely
giving a boost to the dinner hour here,” says Aldaco’s
owner Blanca Aldaco.“It’s been wonderful.”
GRAB THE GIRLS
Promoted as a great girls’ night out, the show brings some
women back two and three times. “I call it the Rocky Horror
Picture Show for women over 40,” says director Michael Larsen. “We actually have groupies.”
 Mothers and daughters, girlfriends, Red Hatters — all pepper
the audience. But “men love it, too,” insists co-producer Kathi
Glist of GFour Productions, the Tony-Award-winning company
that has brought the musical to San Antonio.
“This show should be a mandatory workshop for all men,”
joked one recent male audience member.“Actually, I’ve seen it
twice and enjoyed it every bit as much as my wife.”
Show times at the Cameo Center, 1123 East Commerce,
are Wednesdays - Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 2 p.m.
and 7:30 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. Single tickets are
$39.50 and available at www.menopausethemusical.com or
by calling (210) 881-0911. There are discounts for groups of
10 or more. |
