Menopause, the Musical

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

On an open-ended run, the run away hit Menopause, the Musical continues to break box office records with sold out houses, although I am not completely sure why.

Beth Flynn, Julie Cadwell, Sheryl Renee and Mercedes Perez from Menopause, the Musical at the New Denver Civic Theatre.

Beginning with the Vagina Monologues a segment of our society seems obsessed with the female body, as though they have just discovered it. Maybe, they have, even though it has been around for quite some time. Now, everywhere in the media, on street corners, coffee houses, and Bloomingdale’s women of all sizes, shapes and ages feel compelled to talk about their bodies with what they do and how they do it.

One of the reasons Menopause is such a run away hit at the New Denver Civic Theatre is because of the run away gifted artistic cast, and the likewise luminous orchestra.

Although Menopause plays to hysterical audiences all over the country, this particular cast has to shine at the top of the menopausal star.

Bloomingdale’s features a sale, bringing together four diverse female personalities out to mix and grab for a bargain. A remnant of the 60s Hippie life style, Beth Flynn, a master of comedy, wears the socks and Birkenstocks as Earth Mother maneuvering her carefree playful eyebrows as exclamation marks at the right ingenious time.

A Soap Star of picky excellence, Mercedez Perez, a classy actor in every role she plays, gives the picky Soap Star the type of class most soap stars only wish they had.

Sheryl Renee dives head first into the power mold as Power Woman, belting the songs with sizzling electricity.

Julie Ann Caldwell, a newcomer to the Denver scene, gives the Iowa Housewife the lost in the big city look with a husband too busy with convention demands to pay her much attention. She does it with awkward grace and self-conscious style, a subtle requirement for the role creating contrast. An actor of immense talent, Caldwell knows her character inside and out.

The bad news is that Flynn soon leaves the cast. The good news for Flynn fans, she will soon appear at the Galleria Theatre in the wildly popular Always Patsy with Melissa Swift Sawyer.

Menopause struts itself as a joyful musical parody engulfing 28 popular songs of the 60s, 70s, and 80s with re-juiced lyrics to capitalize on the upside down menopausal world of anticipation, going through, or having survived the Change.

Although the lyrics are clever from “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” “The Great Pretender,” Stayin’ Alive, and “Puff, The Magic Dragon,” the jokes are old hat. They’ve been talked about, whispered about, sniggered about ever since Earth Woman bought her Birkenstocks and Women’s Lib screamed, “Burn the Bras.”

Yes, Menopause is funny because the explosive talented cast knows comedic timing and comedic inflection.

Director/Choreographer knows her cast and knows how to get the most of these four high-powered actors. Music Director C. T. Hollis and his orchestra bait the music to sing, swing, and fly high wide and handsome.

There are some funny lines. Power Woman laments she was once a size two, while Earth Mother laments her left leg was once a size two. I laughed out loud. I had to. It wasn’t just the line. The delivery knocked me out.

I am hard on comedy. That’s a truth. Expectations run high, but expertise I highly appreciate. Menopause, the Musical showers the stage with expertise because the artistic actors and resounding orchestra. I could but wish the content had more bite.