Motherhood: The Musical

Following on from the success of Menopause The Musical, Hit Productions takes a gruelling but charming look into the complexities of being a mother.  Appropriately titled Motherhood: the Musical, the audience is provided with four perspectives of parenting, by four principal characters.

Walking into the Athenaeum Theatre, the audience is greeted with a bright, artificial nursery that immediately sets ups the tone of the production: fluffy fun.  This will be our set for the next ninety minutes, save a “Baby Shower” banner that offers the context.

At the heart of the production is Amy, played by Rebecca Moore, who enters the stage positively glowing.  She is 36 weeks pregnant, and sings, “I’m having a baby!”  Her three friends are workaholic corporate lawyer Brooke (Ziggy Clements), divorced single mum Trisha (Jacqueline Hoy), and tired and cynical Barb (Amelia Christo).  There is palpable chemistry between the group, but the performance skills are not quite so even.  The obvious standout is Christo, with her compelling voice and unsurpassed number, “Mummy”.

The music is a combination of fresh compositions and well-known tracks with a lyrical change.  The original, “I Leak,” is nicely paralleled with the song "How Great They Were"  (Mammaries), to the tune of The Way We Were.  The women sing along to a CD, which is unnoticeable to the untrained ear.  Generally the dialogue averages 15 lines between tracks, which is often not enough time for the audience to re-calibrate.

The production is enjoyable because of its relate-ability.  The American writer Sue Fabisch taps into motherhood subject matters such as: the over protective and over helpful soon-to-be-grandmother, ridiculous baby names, the predisposition to hate a name because of someone you went to school with, the hubby helping around the house (pre-birth of the child), and the good intentions to scrapbook and use non-disposable nappies.

All four women are caricatures, clichés, designed for the purpose of sharing differing motherhood woes.  This of course extends to their costumes.  Amy looks like she belongs in a parenting magazine, with her angelic face, flowery dress, lilac cardigan and hair accessory.  Amy’s ignorance is indeed exploited as her friends jovially dish the dirt.  

The show boasts some terrific one liners such as, “I’m always on Weight Watchers – but some days I have more points than others”, and, “The nursery colours are amethyst, cream and English meadow”.

Four, it seems, is the magic number for this production. Four protagonists, an audience with a ratio of four women to every man.

Motherhood The Musical is indeed for anyone who is, has, or knows a mum.

Tammy Shmerling

Cast (l to r top picture) Ziggy Clements, Jacqueline Hoy, Rebecca Moore and Amelia Cristo. Photographer – Matt Deller.