The heat is on! Why this show is still the hottest ticket in town!
While menopause is no laughing matter, thankfully Menopause the Musical is brimming with lots of flashy high notes.
Let’s talk about menopause. No? While it might not be everyone’s cup of HRT-infused chardonnay as an entertaining subject matter, since its debut back in 2001 in Florida, in the US, Menopause the Musical has been keeping audiences chuckling and guffawing.
While it’s true that back in the early days of the musical the topic might’ve still had some taboo elements, it seems these days you can’t turn on the telly or open a health webpage without menopause or perimenopause being discussed. So, 25 years after the show had its world premiere, does that make the musical dated in 2026? Possibly just a little. Does anyone really say “The Change” anymore? And yet a few of the show’s songs referred to this.
Twelfth Night Theatre is having a very limited run of Menopause the Musical and, judging by the audience’s reaction last night, it’s fair to say it’s still a big crowd pleaser. Unsurprisingly, the audience was made up mainly of women, although a smattering of brave males also turned up.
The cast is Catherine Alcorn (hailed for her performance as Bette Midler in The Divine Miss Bette) as the Professional Woman, Sally Bourne as the Housewife, Lena Cruz as the Earth Mother and Chelsea Gibb as the Soap Star.
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On the night I went, understudy Hester van der Vyver took that last role and definitely held her own. The setting is a department store, with the opening scene set in most women’s nightmare department – women’s underwear and lingerie.
There’s no denying the talent on stage, as all the women sang up a storm, taking on hits from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, but with adapted lyrics.
I Will Survive became I am Awake, to lament the insomnia that can set in for some women, while The Lion Sleeps Tonight received an amusing treatment with the “a-weema-weh, a-weema-weh” lyrics transformed into “She’s a witch, she’s a bitch” when it tackled mood swings.
The whole litany of menopausal symptoms received an airing, with several takes (perhaps one too many) on hot flushes, weight gain, the dreaded memory lapses and a funny running joke with Sally Bourne needing to run to the toilet and making it just in time. You can use your imagination about what the song, Good Vibrations, was about!
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The little moments of recognition sometimes brought the biggest laughs, such as when Lena Cruz fell off a chair in the make-up department and suddenly found herself unable to get up without the help of holding on to the counter.
The musical is really just a series of short sketches sewn together by the numerous songs. I found myself yearning for more dialogue, even though the humour was pretty broad. It’s not exactly Shakespeare but no-one there wanted that.
After the show, while I lined up in the predictably long queue for the women’s toilets, I asked a group of young women, who were obviously nowhere near menopausal age, what had brought them there. Several of them had come from the UK for a wedding and they’d had a ball as part of the pre-wedding celebrations. Job done.
In 2006, Menopause the Musical ran for nine months at Twelfth Night Theatre, making it the longest-running musical ever staged in Brisbane.
The late Jeanie Linders wrote the script and Cameron Mitchell is the director of the production, co-choreographed with Lisa Callingham.
Menopause the Musical plays Twelfth Night Theatre, Bowen Hills, until October 25.
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