Sisterhood of ‘Menopause’ will carry on without voice of Belle
After nine years, you think we’d be used to the voice of Disney’s sweet Belle bragging about bagging younger men in what’s clearly (at least to everyone else) part of her denial about aging.
But a voice has to come from a body. And over the years it has become more or less normal to see Paige O’Hara as the Soap Star in “Menopause the Musical.” The campy musical proved to be a surprisingly sturdy vehicle in Las Vegas, and its producers don’t expect that to change when it moves from Luxor to Harrah’s next month.
But O’Hara won’t follow the move. The last show at Luxor on Jan. 18 will be her last, given that she’s leaving with an open door to return if she changes her mind.
At 58, her neck hasn’t proven as sturdy as the show. Continued aggravation of a pulled muscle gave her the final reason to “have a little bit of a life for a while,” and do some other things.
O’Hara does very well selling her paintings of Belle and other Disney characters. She also wants to put together a concert act and pursue a Disney Channel special to get all the princesses together to sing for charity.
“I just have to convince Idina Menzel to do it because she’s such a huge star now,” she says.
“At this point I’m kind of resolute to move on,” she says. “I need a little break from all the head-spinning and stuff. It just comes with the show. Other actresses have had trouble with their knees or whatever. We’re middle-aged women.”
That is what the show is about.
The four-woman musical “helped change the conversation about menopause,” says co-producer Kathi Glist. “In fact it wasn’t even a conversation when we started. It was very much in the closet and the word was whispered, it wasn’t shouted.”
All that’s changed in 14 years of the show, including the Las Vegas company spending four years at the Las Vegas Hilton and five at Luxor.
Now “Menopause” is moving to The Improv at Harrah’s, hoping to open as soon as Feb. 3. Producers hope to increase to 10 shows a week in the 6 p.m. berth abandoned by “Defending the Caveman” (which plans to stay in town).
The move includes a stage expansion, a new set and costumes, and new light and sound equipment.
Other female-centric cabaret musicals tried and failed to get through the door that was perceived to be opened by “Menopause.” The next one is “50 Shades! The Parody” opening Feb. 3 at Bally’s.
But what “Menopause” has that its competition lacks is the element of “celebration,” Glist says.
“The beauty of this show is people don’t just see it once. They take ownership. They don’t want to just send their family and friends. They bring them,” she says.
“The way the show is constructed, that magic happens about three-quarters of the way through allows the female audience member to just shift her paradigm and say, ‘The best of my life is not behind me, in fact it’s ahead of me.’ It’s one more chance to sort of grab at that brass ring.”
Glist and her husband, Alan, plan to spend more time in Las Vegas to oversee the musical. Their company, GFour Productions, has bought out the remaining interest of the musical’s writer and creator, Jeannie Linders, leaving them free to “control our own destiny.”
Along with tweaking the script and some of the songs in the original — which hasn’t changed much since it opened — there are plans for a sequel, which would turn to songs from the ’80s for its song parodies as a new generation of women approach “the change.”
O’Hara notes that menopause became a real thing for the “sisterhood” of cast members in their years together.
“We’ve gone through a lot together between children growing up and divorces and deaths,” she says. “It’s been quite a ride.”
Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.
