Interview: Whitney Hayes of Dutch Apple's MENOPAUSE

How long does menopause last? In the case of MENOPAUSE: THE MUSICAL, Whitney Hayes, the business-suited Professional Woman of the cast of four modern female archetypes, lets us know that the show MENOPAUSE has been going for fifteen years. Hayes has played Professional Woman eleven times, and is currently in her second production of MENOPAUSE, again playing the business executive, at Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre. Though she "still has a few years to go" before her own change of life, she's learned a lot about it both from the production and from the audience members she meets at each performance.

The show's unnamed women, who meet and bond over their life issues during a day's shopping trip to Bloomingdale's, are Hayes' Professional Woman, a "Soap Star" who's afraid her aging looks will force her out of the show, an upstate New York ex-hippie "Earth Mother" who now either farms or gardens, and an "Iowa Housewife" who's visiting New York with her funeral director husband during one of his business conferences. There are a few short dialogue scenes of bonding over shopping, lunch at the department store café, and in the salon, which link together over twenty parodies of hits from the 1950s through 1980s that have been retooled lyrically to describe the women's various hormonal, medical, family, and work situations that have been affected by their bodies' changes.

While the others' lives are more described by the dialogue - Soap Star loves to talk about herself endlessly, and Iowa Housewife is thrilled to meet other women who will listen to her, Hayes spent some time three years ago, when she first took the role, to get acquainted with Professional Woman. "I had to do some digging into her background and how she got the position of power she's in, and how menopause is affecting that. She's a very strong woman in an authority position - in my mind, she's built her company from the ground up." In the musical, it's clear that Professional Woman has become edgy, nervous, and a bit brain-fogged; she's not looking forward to having to perform certain critical tasks. "When you're dealing with mood swings and emotions, you don't want to be doing performance reviews!"

A corporate executive or president isn't a character that most women might identify with on the spot - "I think for a lot of women, Iowa Housewife might be the most immediately relatable" - but the show's story line reveals a great deal about the characters' shared fears and anxieties as well as their differences. "Eventually the audience sees through all the women's walls and embraces them." It's hard not to embrace Professional Woman in the show; she's the one with the entertainment magazine in her briefcase that mentions Soap Star's real age, and she's the one who does a riotously funny musical impression of a certain celebrated older female singer when the women discuss the effects of menopause on their sex lives. "I'm on stage practically all the time except for the scene where Iowa Housewife is on stage shopping by herself."

Is her costumed impression her favorite moment? Surprisingly, no - but the parts she likes best are bonding moments, whether with the other characters or with the audience. "My most fun in the show is when we have dialogue that shows the women's relationship with each other. It's even more fun than some of the production numbers." What else is fun? "It's fun every time I'm out there, seeing the audience recognize that they know the tune of one of the parody songs and they get that aware look - you can see the light bulbs going off - and then they laugh." The parodies are thick and furious: "Chain of Fools" becomes "Change of Life," and "Heat Wave" ("We're having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave") becomes, unsurprisingly, "Hot Flash." Other songs parody "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" with a story of how one woman's husband is sleeping on the sofa now, while "Stayin' Alive" becomes "Staying Awake," a ditty about chronic exhaustion. And, keeping its title, "Good Vibrations" deals with the issue of increased interest in sex that many women develop at this time of life, and dealing with partners who can't keep up.

Hayes was recently seen at Dutch Apple in another musical revue, SMOKEY JOE'S CAFÉ. "I love that show too, but this is such a contrast. SMOKEY JOE has no dialogue bridging the songs and developing the characters. Both are wonderful shows, but they're very different."

But there's something about MENOPAUSE that differs not only from SMOKEY JOE'S CAFÉ but from most musicals: there's audience interaction. Towards the end of each performance, the actresses come into the audience to ask other women to join them in a kick line on stage. "It's such a great time interacting, and I've heard so many stories from all kinds of women - they enjoy being able to laugh at their situations. It always cracks me up when the ladies get up there and discover how hot the stage lights are! You know, it gets hot up there after ninety minutes of non-stop performing."

And although the show closes at Dutch Apple on April 30, Hayes doesn't stop being Professional Woman. "I'll be going to Broadway Palm in Florida [sister theatre to Dutch Apple] after it closes here, and then we head to Illinois. I'm living my character!" But Hayes reserves her real respect for the performers who are the swings in this show, who may never be seen on stage if all goes well. "I'm amazed by the swings. They have to learn and know multiple roles in the show. It's enough for me to know the one, even when I'm constantly performing it!"

Hayes is a Pittsburgh native, so Lancaster is closer to home, plainly, than many of her stops in MENOPAUSE, which have been as far west as Arizona. Outside of MENOPAUSE and SMOKEY JOE'S CAFÉ (where she distinguished herself at Dutch Apple with her comic moments in the show, as well as with her musical talent), she's been Motormouth Maybelle in HAIRSPRAY, "Mama" Morton in CHICAGO, and in a national tour of ELF: THE MUSICAL, among other roles.

MENOPAUSE: THE MUSICAL is a bit of a phenomenon. A company, GFour Productions, exists primarily, if not entirely, to keep author Jeanie Linders' show on the road in multiple cities and multiple countries, and even multiple languages (there's now a Spanish-language production). It's currently playing year-round in Vegas. Susan Anton and Judy Tenuta have both made appearances in various productions. There's no stopping this juggernaut.

As a reviewer, I'll concede immediately, this show isn't perfect. Parts of it are an ode to better living through chemistry, as the women discuss and sing about their psychological medications, and if you haven't been through menopause yet, the comic exaggeration about symptoms may be enough to panic you; my own mother barely noticed her menopause. It's a "your mileage may vary" experience for women, which is barely acknowledged (my own was considerably less significant than the major pre-menopausal conditions that preceded it). And there's a certain amount of what feels like backdated sexism in the women's characterizations, surprising in a show that came out on this side of the century divide and that was written by a woman. But it's mostly pleasant, the song parodies are by and large funny (and sometimes absolutely hilarious), and you can see the overwhelmingly female audience bonding with each other and with the characters on stage as the show progresses. And the cast - Hayes, Sarah Hayes (no relation), Megan Opalinski, and Donnalynn Waller, are amazingly energetic, able to keep the show moving nonstop for ninety uninterrupted minutes of musical comedy.

Not surprisingly, this is far more of a women's show than a men's show; some men aren't quite comfortable with it (there is some definite male bashing as well as discussion of women and sex), though it might prove educational for a spouse or two. And some people may be uncomfortable with the extremely frank comedy about women, sex, and masturbation. If you must absolutely avoid being solicited for the kickline, sit in the rear; it's the front section that's promptly raided when the audience is welcomed on stage, so if you're looking for your big break, get a front table! Keep those in mind when you plan your visit. Expect great singing, a strong comic Tina Turner impression from Hayes, deliberately feeble Sonny and Cher impressions from everyone, and Iowa Housewife Waller performing an amazing feat of physical comedy trying to squeeze into some lingerie that won't fit - a moment at which the entire audience laughs so hard that tears come.

Through April 30; visit www.dutchapple.com for tickets.