Seven Days: Vermont's Independent Voice

Hot Flash Forward

When four women reach for a black lace bra at a lingerie sale, they find they have far more intimate things in common than taste in undergarments. They’re all going through “the change,” tackling hot flashes, mood swings and wrinkles. Jeanie Linder’s Menopause the Musical, which premiered in 2001, unites these women in a comic song-fest that parodies classic tunes from the 1960s to ’80s. Midlife maladies from chocolate binges to memory loss become the themes of cleverly revamped tracks such as “Stayin’ Awake” and “Puff, My God I’m Draggin’.” Kathryn Conte directs the production as it stops by the Flynn this week, voicing loud and clear that menopause doesn’t have to be a “silent passage.”