She never shouted it out loud: Claudine Mercier is retired. but the sixty-year-old decided to leave it to realize a dream that dates back to childhood.
Any self-respecting music lover knows, if only by reputation, the famous musical parody Menopause. The show has been a hit in Las Vegas for over 15 years and has been seen in 16 countries by millions of people. He will settle here in the fall of 2025 and will be on tour in Quebec in 2026. Claudine Mercier, who had retired, is coming out to experience this great adventure!
She reappeared last year to play in Silence, we’re filming!. Before that, the comedian and actress had lived for five years in the shadows of the stage and galas. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been on a red carpet!” she exclaims. He doesn’t miss it. “I retired. I left showbiz. Life is beautiful!” She returned last year for a piece that she wanted to do. This time, she is back to take on a challenge that is close to her heart and that she has always dreamed of: a musical. It was “the” thing that could bring her back to the stage. “When the Entourage gang asked to talk to me about a proposal, I was thinking of refusing because I didn’t have the taste for anything. But when they told me it was for a musical, I changed my mind, she admits. I’ve been into musical theater since I was little! I loved it to bits when I was young. At university, I had a show songs class where we studied quite a few musicals. Over the course of my life, I’ve gone to see musicals in Toronto and New York a couple of times.”
Next year, she will find herself on stage in Menopausethe musical parody, under the direction of Alexis Pitkevicht, alongside Guylaine Tanguay, Catherine Sénart and Geneviève Charest. All will sing and dance to pastiches of great musical hits from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s with the theme of this period when women are experiencing a great transition. Memory loss, hot flashes, night sweats and the ups and downs of sex life will be addressed with humor, in song-based paintings. “I thought I was too old to realize my dream, but this show is about menopause, it’s perfect!,” she rejoices. Rehearsals won’t start until August 2025, so that gives me time to regain my vocal flexibility and get back into physical shape.
Insomniac
Claudine knows menopause! “I had a lot of insomnia during menopause. That’s what was hardest for me. And with the lack of sleep came the memory loss.”
This terrible period, however, is not linked to his withdrawal from public life. “I still did five one-woman shows plus the Just for Laughs tour… I landed in my sixties, so I said to myself: ‘The last show was less successful than the others, it’s a sign. I think it’s time for me to move on.” I was there.”
The pleasure of painting and singing
At 63, she lives peaceful days with her lover, Jean-Sébastien, in Saint-Bruno, between relaxing, painting and singing for her personal pleasure. “I never officially said I was retiring because only crazy people don’t change their minds. I didn’t want to make a Dominique Michel of myself,” she admits. Then she becomes humble: “In any case, I don’t have the popularity to come forward in the media and declare: “I’m retiring.” I left slowly. I didn’t feel the need to warn everyone.”
When Claudine Mercier stopped working in 2018, she naturally turned to something else without missing the world of humor. “During the years of the pandemic, I no longer thought about my shows at all. I was elsewhere. I started painting and I was really into it! I was happy when I sold paintings! It fascinated me!” What did painting give him that humor didn’t? “I have always loved the visual arts. I have been painting since I was 14. I even did a DEC in visual arts. At university, I hesitated between this field and theater, I was accepted in both programs and I chose theater. But it’s a passion that has always been with me. Abstract painting is very therapeutic for me! I make art without expecting results. There’s something really liberating about that!”
Unfortunately, Claudine had to stop painting. “My boyfriend has lung problems and, when I do it in the house, it’s not good for him. I had to stop.” But it was a blessing in disguise, because as she put down her brush, she began to sing. “I like it, singing! I sing all the time, at home, even if I don’t have spectators. And I like it! It vibrates inside me. I get great pleasure from doing it! she admits. So I had started the song again, for fun, when the offer for the musical arrived. » This passion for singing has also always nourished her. “I took singing lessons with Monique Cardinal for a long time.” The latter worked with a certain Céline Dion.
A victory over itself
The comedian has always shown excessive humility. Last spring, during his visit to The true natureshe confided that she never thought she was good. And when host Jean-Philippe Dion showed her an extract from a number proving that she excelled in humor, she burst into tears. “It came for me. I was stuck on the last show, where I felt less good, but this made me think, and I realize that I still did good business!” It was with the conviction that she was not excelling in her field, after a show poorly received by critics, that she left the profession. “Having bad reviews is something special to experience when you’re an artist. It’s shocking.”
Throughout her career, she tried to overcome great self-consciousness and a lack of self-confidence. “I have always had this extreme shyness, ever since I was young. I’m still the same! At the same time, I surpassed myself. I made do with what I had as faults. When I look at it, in hindsight, I am proud of what I did! Even if my last show wasn’t great, I still did four more, and there were more than 800,000 spectators who saw me! I did great things, I made the world laugh en masse, I sang… When I performed at St-Denis, I signed autographs for an hour and a half afterwards! I won a Félix, three Oliviers and a prize in Belgium. I’ve had some great career ends!”
More than 30 years in the business
Last year, she had been in the business for 30 years. “It’s not something I thought about. I take it as it comes.” And if she takes stock… “Nothing happens for nothing. Even the last show, it didn’t exist for nothing… I had something to learn from it. And in general, in life, I tried to have this philosophy. I have to learn in this, it will make me grow and I will come out of all this stronger.
At 63, how does the unofficial retiree see the future? “I don’t know. I take things as they come, as they come. I remain open to everything. For now, I’m especially looking forward to singing with the three other girls in the show and doing harmonies with them! I find great pleasure in saying to myself: “We’re going to do this and it’s going to be fun!”” With this challenge, she ticks another box of things she wanted to accomplish in her life. “It’s never too late to make your dreams come true. Fred Astaire was famous at the age of 55.” It’s too late for regrets. “But if I hadn’t been so embarrassed and stuck up and had the money to take classes when I was young, I think I would have had a great career on Broadway.”
The musical parodies Menopause will be on display at the Salle Pierre-Mercure of the Center Pierre-Péladeau, in Montreal, from November 7 to 12, 2025 as well as at the Salle Albert-Rousseau, in Quebec, on November 19 and 20, 2025. on tour in the province from January 2026 (menopausespectacle.com).
