Menopause – The Musical will play at London’s Shaw Theatre. The cast features Miquel Brown, Samantha Hughes, Su Pollard and Amanda Symonds. The revue will begin performances on 27 March and open on 18 April.
Brown’s theatre credits include A Streetcar Named Desire and Darker Face of Earth (at the National), Fame (Cambridge), Sweet Lorraine (Old Fire Station, Oxford), Bubbling Brown Sugar (Royalty) and Hair (Her Majesty’s/Queen’s Theatre). She is best known for a recording career that saw her voted number five in the Top 10 Female Vocalists in the World by Billboard Magazine. Hughes has appeared as Mrs. Lyons in Blood Brothers in the West End and Toronto and has appeared in tours of Gentle Hook, Present Laughter and Table Manners. Pollard is best known for her TV role as Peggy Ollerenshaw in the long-running series Hi De Hi! She appeared onstage in national tours of Grease, Sweet Charity and The Pirates of Penzance and West End productions of Godspell and Me and My Girl. She has also appeared onstage in See How They Run, A Happy Medium and The Vagina Monologues. Symonds was most recently seen as Mrs. Corny in Mary Poppins at the Prince Edward Theatre and in Carrie’s War at Sadlers’ Wells. Other credits include Zipp! (Duchess Theatre), As You Like It and Romeo and Juliet (National Theatre) and Midnight Hour (Young Vic).
[AD]Menopause – the Musical, by Jeanie Linders, centers on four women who meet at a lingerie sale and have nothing in common apart from a black bra—and hot flushes, night sweats, memory loss, chocolate binges, not enough sex, too much sex and the day-to-day challenges of aging parents, children and partners. The show features 25 classic Baby Boomer hits that have been equipped with new lyrics, including “I Heard It Thru the Grapevine You No Longer See 39” and the Motown favourite “My Thighs.”
“I am delighted to be able to present Menopause –The Musical in London,” Linders, who is producing the London production, said in a statement. “We have had so many emails from British women who have seen the show in Australia and the United States in which they urge me to bring it to London. So, ladies, here we come!”
Menopause – The Musical has been seen in 110 cities and nine countries since it premiered in Orlando, Florida in 2001.