Motherhood the Musical | Theater review

Like mothers everywhere, Motherhood the Musical tries its best to do it all. It multitasks, appealing to the senses of exhaustion, frustration, bewilderment and occasional joy Everymom gets from the thankless job she voluntarily signed up for. It's 90 minutes of we-feel-your-pain songs and jokes, presented in the context of three experienced moms throwing a shower for an expectant neighbor.   

The night we saw the show—produced by the same group who came up with Menopause the Musical—there was lots of guffawing (sometimes to the point of tears) and whispers of "so true" in the audience as the cast belted out sigh-this-is-my-life-now numbers. They're mostly about predictable topics: minivans, baby weight, the pleasures of sleeping children, obsessions with Costco, and one that pushed the boundaries of what we (even as moms) felt necessary called "I Leak." 

While Motherhood does its best to come off as modern (one of the four characters is divorced and sings a poignant song about how tough it is when her kids spend weekends with Dad, another is a cell-phone-obsessed career woman), overall, it's got a decidedly unhip feel. During a mock protest bit, the cast hands out picket signs to the audience that say things such as "Vacuums Suck!" I could see my 60-something mom getting a kick out of that, but not me.

Still, it was hard not to smile at "How Great They Were (Mammaries)," a riff on the song "The Way We Were" lamenting a bygone time when these women were proud of their now less-than-spectacular breasts, and how ther husbands won't let them forget. If you've got kids, and to some extent even a mother of your own, this is a very relatable show, so it's hard not to find something to like. 

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Motherhood the Musical is playing at the Royal George Theatre through June 17. Click here for showtimes and tickets.