Menopause: Two Cultures, Two Languages

 

"Gotta pee, gotta pee." A middle-aged actress ran across the stage. I'd just arrived from Europe for the Christmas holiday in 2004. My friend said I had to see Menopause, the Musical, so there were we were at the Stuart Street Playhouse in Boston.

Four menopausal women met on a department store lingerie floor. Despite very different backgrounds, they bonded in story and song. Popular songs were adapted such as: "We're having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave"  to become "We're having a hot flash a tropical hot flash." 

What fun, but there was a lot of truth in the adaptations of all the songs.

Flash forward to 6 March in Southern France. I saw an advert for Menopause in Perpignan. What would it be like in French? What would be the music? How would it transcend two different cultures? Along with my husband and a good friend we went to find out:

• Four menopausal women of different backgrounds bonded on a lingerie department floor. The same.
• Similar staging captured the flavor of the store. 
• Songs, although French popular ones, were turned into parodies. Same concept.
• The American and French crowds laughed almost constantly. 
• Through the humor came truth, a universality.

I was proud of myself, that I knew almost all the music and loved the Claude François parody. (He was the real writer of My Way not Paul Anka). I did miss some references and felt so good that my French friend did too. She had been in the States for several years and had missed out on the source of some of the references.

The show was a sell out. We had seats at the end of an aisle but one of them was an extension. As we waited for the start of the performance, a woman two seats away said that her friend couldn't come so one of us should take her friend's empty seat. We did.

So what did I come away with culturally having lived in both cultures.

• Some things are similar to everyone like menopause for women.
• Parody of popular music works with national adjustments.
• The same things can be funny across cultures when it has a universality. 

My husband, who is newer living outside the U.S., discovered laughter sounded the same in different languages. 

In researching the history of the musical, I discovered the musical has toured the U.S., played for three years in Las Vegas, was part of the entertainment on a cruise ship and has been translated to different localities and languages around the world. After twenty-two years, it is still relevant.

There was one difference. In Boston many of the audience ended on stage singing with the cast. In France the parody lyrics were flashed on a screen and the audience had a sing-along. Either way, there was a feeling on bonding.

Notes: Check out Menopause the Musical 2 - all the songs in 2 minutes! - YouTube English version