What happens when four hormonally haywire women bump into each other in the lingerie section of Bloomingdale’s?
Apparently, they sing.
At least, they do in “Menopause the Musical,” the hit revue now playing in dozens of cities around the country. And here’s a hot flash: The show is finally coming to the Bay Area with an open-ended run premiering April 12 at the Pier 39 Theater.
The show’s writer/producer Jeanie Linders, 55, happens to be a Jewish woman with no previous theater background. But she earned her M.A. degree (Menopause Authority) several years ago, and put it to good use.
“My background is event planning, not theater,” she says in a phone interview from her home in Orlando, Fla. “But the show isn’t about theater. It’s about women.”
To be more precise, it’s about women going through what was once quaintly termed “the change of life.” Weaving a loose plot with parodies of songs familiar to the now-menopausal Baby Boomer generation, “Menopause the Musical” (called MTM for short, without apology to Mary Tyler Moore) has played to packed houses from day one because of its universal theme (for half of humanity, at least).
The four characters — a soap opera star, a hippie, a business executive and an Iowa housewife — kvetch about the annoying symptoms of menopause and sing songs like “Stayin’ Awake, Stayin’ Awake,” “My Husband Sleeps Tonight” and “My Thighs” (from “My Guy”).
“The show gives women a point of relationship,” says Linders. “You can sit around with your girlfriends all the time saying ‘I’m having hot flashes,’ but when they’re in the audience, they’re screaming, ‘That’s me!'”
Linders sees the show getting that response all over the world, transcending language, culture and religion. “My original cast did a show in Kuala Lumpur in a Muslim country,” she says. “We had women in burkas and saris, with four religions crossing, but it was still about women going through something they all experience.”
Though the show has no overt Jewish content (nor are any of the characters Jewish), Linders feels her Jewish background somehow filtered in between the lines.
“The relationship to family is the strongest Jewish line,” she says. “The show creates dialogue between mothers and daughters. Men love the show, too. Getting them through the door, the wives tell their husbands, ‘This is what I’m going through.'”
Linders herself is the daughter of two Jewish refugees from prewar Holland and Germany. Many of her relatives were imprisoned in Auschwitz. She says she didn’t have too much Jewish religion or culture in her childhood, but that her heritage is a source of pride.
Linders says “a hot flash and a bottle of wine” inspired the play. She financed the first production, held in a former perfume store in Orlando, back in 2000 and never looked back. In time, MTM replaced her former marketing business and is now her full-time occupation.
She cites the fact that MTM has often drawn on Jewish women’s organizations for fund-raisers and for “girls night out” events at the theater. “We have strong relationships with Hadassahs and JCCs,” she says. “They are sisterhoods going to see another ‘sisterhood.'”
Now, with multiple productions across the country and around the world, and with several ancillary art and charity projects spawned by the show, Linders finds herself CEO of a growing enterprise. The San Francisco run is part of that.
“The nice thing about MTM is that it allows us to spin off and do more things,” she says. “Pier 39 is not only going to be home for the show but also for the women’s arts alliance, our nonprofit foundation. We’ll use the space for women’s theatrical projects, host a women’s West Coast playwright competition in the fall, and do ’40 x 40,’ which is art by women over 40.”
Up next, she plans to write a book about her four characters (one of whom she says she will make Jewish). She still oversees all new MTM productions. Next year, the show opens in Israel in a Hebrew translation.
After that, Linders fans will have to wait and see. But she herself isn’t too concerned with running out of ideas.
“I’ve always been one of those people who listens to what’s inside my brain,” she says. “And if I’m quiet enough, I can hear it.”
“Menopause the Musical” previews 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 12, with opening night 8 p.m. Thursday, April 28. The show runs 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, with matinees 2 p.m. Wednesdays and Sundays and 4 p.m. Saturdays. Tickets: $46.50. Information: (415) 433-4100 or www.menopausethemusical.com.