All they teach you about before having a child is how to change a diaper and how to breathe during the birthing process. (And even that is a futile lesson. When it comes to the moment of birth, mommies just get through it on a wing and a prayer and a grunt. Lamaze has little play in reality.) Then, presto, yes, you're ready to be…a Mommy! Or not.  Mommy! Mommy! The Musical… Musical! zeroes in on the "or not" part of child-rearing. All the "next steps" that no one and nothing can ever prepare a mother for (or father-yes, they too will relate). With an affectionate, reverential comic look back, writer and lyricist (and mother), Elin Hampton, shares the foibles of motherhood. We are introduced to four women who take us through the maternal cycle. From the snipping of the umbilical cord, on to the troubled teens and beyond, to the requisite cutting of the apron strings as innocence and dependence are released, and then the eventual loss of one's own mother. Michelle Azar is Mare, the lesbian Rabbi; Heidi Godt is Yvette, her life partner (the most down-to-earth, realistic mommy, and actor, of the group); Elizabeth Lauren Hoffman is Cydney, the young, insecure, quickly divorced mommy; and Terri Homberg-Olsen is Bess, the older, multi-tasking career woman/mother.

Elizabeth Lauren Hoffman, Michelle Azar, Terri Homberg-Olsen, Heidi Godt and Brian Beacock star in the world premiere of MOMMY! MOMMY!

   Mommy! Mommy! strolls down the underside of motherhood. When you look at your children and want to wring their little necks. When you despise yourself because you hate that your child isn't the best and the brightest after all. When you realize that being a mother means you have to relive all the pain of childhood, that all the hurt and frustration are fresh all over again. It's not only about throwing the party for your little girl, it's about your little one not being invited to the latest party at all. And then, even worse, how they grow up to not need you anymore (in theory).

Heidi Godt, Michelle Azar, Terri Homberg-Olsen and Elizabeth Lauren Hoffman star in the world premiere of MOMMY! MOMMY!

In "I Can't Heal the Pain," Homberg-Olsen movingly draws on the frustration when there's really nothing a mother, even a high-powered businesswoman, can say or do to make a child feel better, and Azar, in "No One's Little Girl," gently sings of the loss of a mother/grandmother. The humorous "A Hundred and Three," a deliberately off-putting, off-key song that so totally gets what it's like to be an indisposed mother, let's Hoffman give the lamenting Adelaide a run for her money on the sick song front. Gerald Sternbach's music is spunky and bright, keeping the pace of the show moving along. His is a fitting marriage with Hampton's writing and Kay Cole's choreography and direction. Cole makes fun use of the space, incorporating pole dancing, maneuvering a shopping cart up and down the grocery store aisles, and tap dancing with swim fins. The cast is topped off with cameo bits throughout by the lone male, Brian Beacock, stepping in as "Anyone and Everyone." Beacock waltzes his way through a plethora of characters, and yes, caricatures, each one more outrageous and hysterical than the other (the Korean pedicurist may be a step too far).
   Moms may not know what to expect when they're expecting, nor will they know any better by the time they're grandmas, but you can expect this Mommy! to deliver the laughter and tears (with, thankfully, none of the responsibility) of being a mother.

(from left to right) Terri Homberg-Olsen, Elizabeth Lauren Hoffman, Michelle Azar and Heidi Godt star in the world premiere of MOMMY! MOMMY!


   
 Mommy! Mommy! The Musical…Musical! Book, Lyrics and Concept by Elin Hampton Music by Gerald Sternbach Direction and Choreography by Kay Cole At the Hudson Backstage Through April 1, 2007 Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 3pm Tickets $30: Reservations: 323-960-7774 or visit www.plays411/mommy
Information: www.mommymommythemusicalmusical.com