MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL 2010
Alzheimer's The Musical: A Night to Remember
Prospect Productions
1 April 2010
Chapel Off Chapel
Had enough of a Comedy Fest full of gen Ys whinging about everything or gen Xs telling you that we are right, have always been right and will always be right? Then it's off to Rod Quantock and Denise Scott for you and don't miss Alzheimer's The Musical.
"To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable." Oscar WildeI'm with Oscar, and I think I'm in line behind Maureen Sherlock, Lyn Shakepeare and Carole Yelland. This terrific trio aren't ready for the nursing home yet, but they are of "an age" where g-strings are no longer an underwear option and 40-somethings give up seats for them on the tram (the gen Ys sure as hell don't), so it's time to start exploring how fun life can be when knee highs are easier than pantyhose and slippers can be worn in public.
From the opening number, "I'm Living in my Seventies" (even better for those alive in the 70s), to the obligatory matching shoes and colostomy bag joke, there are plenty of gags about bowls and bowels, but it's the jokes about pelvic floor muscles, the granny sex chat and the best-ever balloon models about reproductive organs that have all ages squirming with laughter.
The story is minimal (and not at all about Alzheimer's), but there is room for some poignant moments that remind us that losing your loved ones, friends and health isn't necessarily a barrel of monkeys.
If you remember buying cookies at David Jones, had a Mickey Mouse watch or have trouble remembering the minuet (I can barely remember the men I fucked ... boom boom), forgo the young ones ranting in the city, grab all your boomer relatives and friends and get on the tram to Chapel off Chapel for mutton dressed as mutton and a hip replacement hop that'll make you glad that we can age disgracefully.
This review appears on AussieTheatre.com.
