Menopause the Musical should perhaps be renamed, Marmite the Musical, because like the salty spread, people will either love it or hate it.
My feet were firmly planted in the latter camp, and if I had paid for my ticket, I’d have asked for my money back at the interval.
But when you’re there to review a show you have to stay there to the end, like it or lump it.
There’s no real storyline apart from it being set in a department store where four female shoppers, all going through the change of life, regularly bump into each other and compare their symptoms.
Cheryl Fergison (Eastenders) played an earth mother/hippie; former pop star and established actress Maureen Nolan played an aging soap star who’d had tried everything to keep old age at bay; Rebecca Wheatley (Casualty) played a downtrodden housewife that looked like she’d come straight from the 1950’s while Ruth Berkeley, an established West End star, played a suited and booted business woman.
It was a strong, professional cast, and they could all sing – Ruth in particularly had a fabulous voice, and it is via parody songs the narrative is told.
“In the Jungle the lion sleeps tonight becomes “In the spare room the husband sleeps tonight”, Puff the Magic Dragon becomes “Puff, My God I’m Draggin” while the Mary Wells classic, My Guy becomes, “My Thighs.”
Ruth’s Tina Turner impression and Rebecca Wheatley’s take on Good Vibrations from the Beach Boys were the only blinks of sunshine in a show that felt dull, outdated and repetitive – there’s only so many parody songs you can listen to in one evening.
While some audience members looked bored rigid, others had a whale of a time with some even joining the cast on stage at the end for a jolly sing along.
Me? I’d rather have had a hot flush…
Menopause the Musical can be seen at Eden Court Theatre, Inverness, tonight.