CHOCOLATE cravings, hot flushes, loss of memory, weight gain and nocturnal sweats. The joys and the woes of the menopause are celebrated in the hilarious Menopause – The Musicial, with Irish Eurovision heroine Niamh Kavanagh making her musical theatre debut.
The 1993 Eurovision winner joins Mary Byrne, Sue Collins and Linda Nolan in the Irish tour of this comedy depiction of 'the change', which has entertained and inspired women across the world since 2001.
The musical has also been credited with making the menopause no longer the silent passage that a woman has to endure alone, but a stage in every woman’s life that is perfectly normal.
Fourty-seven-year-old Niamh jokes she "can't wait" to experience the menopause. "It can be traumatic when it comes, but not everyone gets all the symptoms, so we shouldn't worry too much about it.
"Some say it's like going through puberty backwards, only the erratic behaviour is expected of you as a teenager – not when you're 50," she laughs.
Menopause –The Musicial is set in a department store where four women with seemingly nothing in common but a black lace bra on sale, come to find they have more to share than ever imagined.
The nameless characters are simply referred to as Earth Mother, Professional Woman, Soap Star and Housewife, which makes the story so identifiable to audiences.
Niamh dons a suit and plays the professional woman. "She's normally boss of everything, but her hormones have got the better of her. Through the journey she discovers that being in control isn't always necessary or possible," she explains.
While she has played the evil queen before in panto, this is Niamh's first musical and she is thoroughly enjoying the experience.
"I'm either going to fall in love with it or die a death," laughs the singer, who can sympathise with Strictly Come Dancing star Daniel O'Donnell as she struggled to learn the dance steps.
"It's a new departure for me as I'm used to doing my own thing and performing on my own. So it's good to have a bit of discipline and do some new things and I've always wanted to do a musical. It's such a lovely group of girls to be working with and it's great learning from each other. We are having great craic, it's definitely a girls' night out."
She is particularly enjoying delivering the innuendo-laden versions of pop classics from the 60s, 70s and 80s, such as Chain of Life which has been changed to Chain of Fools and Looking for Love has been changed to Looking for Food.
"It's been so much fun and may open other theatrical doors for me here in the north," says Dublin-born Niamh, who lives in Carrickfergus with her northern husband Paul Meghaey and her 12 and 14-year-old sons, whom she admits are "underwhelmed" by their mother's success.
It's been a challenging year for Niamh, who revisited the Irish language for the first time since school, for her role as a judge on TG4 Junior Eurovision.
Niamh is joined on the panel by Belfast singer and 2006 Eurovision representative Brian Kennedy and Stiofán Ó Fearail, lead singer of Irish band Seo Linn, in the search for the voice and song to represent Ireland in our debut entry at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, on November 21.
Currently running on a Sunday evening, 32 singers aged between 10 and 15, who have written their own original Irish language songs, will battle it out for a place in Sofia, Bulgaria.
"It's very exciting because you're getting young people involved in songwriting and performing at a very early age. There are some magnificent songs – real heartfelt talent and modern music that you might not expect from Eurovision. It's also giving a platform for Gaeilge," adds Niamh, who apologises for her less than perfect pronunciations on the show.
Renowned for the strength and adaptability of her voice, Niamh first rose to acclaim through her commanding renditions of several soul classics on the soundtrack of The Commitments film in 1990.
But it was her 1993 Eurovision win in Millstreet, Co Cork, before an international audience of more than 350 million that made the flame-haired singer a household name.
The second of Ireland’s famous three-in-a row victories, the song, In Your Eyes, went on to achieve double-platinum status.
Niamh returned to the Eurovision Song Contest stage in 2010 inspired by the quality of the song It’s For You. She managed to make it through the semi-final stage before finishing 23rd in a field of 25 contestants.
She believes the main Ireland Eurovision selection panel could learn from the example of Junior Eurovision and make the selection process more diverse, tougher and open to the Irish language, in order to be competitive again – or at least qualify for the final.
"Ireland were the cheeky chappies in the early 90s on the world stage and very popular. Personally, both my experiences were amazing, singing to such a huge crowd internationally. One was victorious and the other less so, but I wouldn't change a thing."
Would she do it again? "I never say never about anything," adds an enthusiastic Niamh, who in her solo work enjoys performing with The Illegals, a tribute band to The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac, who have gigs coming up next month in Lisburn, Newtownabbey, Ballymena and Downpatrick.
- Menopause – The Musical plays Derry's Millennium Forum on October 20 and 21. Tickets at www.millenniumforum.co.uk.
