Jeanie Linders' revue - about four female archetypes (instead of being given proper names, they're called "Professional Woman," "Soap Star," "Iowa Housewife," and "Earth Mother") who meet at a Bloomingdale's lingerie sale and never leave - took up a four-year residence, from 2004 to 2008, at Society Hill Playhouse. Its current incarnation is in town for only a week, but judging by the number of empty seats on opening night, that may be more than enough time for the ladies who shall remain nameless to state their case for endgame empowerment and move on.

And so they do, for 90 minutes and nearly a dozen boomer-era song parodies about hot flashes. The Bee Gees' "Night Fever" becomes "Night Sweatin'." Aretha Franklin's "Chain of Fools" becomes "Change of Life." The Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" keeps its title, but devolves into a depressing ditty about sexual loneliness. Luckily, there's a song about anti-depressants too.

The real tragedy is that four obviously talented women - Ingrid Cole, Patti Gardner, Lisa Mack, and Carolynne Warren - are stuck on the Menopause circuit, the theatrical equivalent of being put out to pasture. And it's equally tragic that for women of a certain age, this is just about the only dramatic offering (I use that term very loosely) that speaks to their experience.

It's not that Linders' lyrics are more trite than any other show of this type, or that she is alone in keeping her characters anonymous; Respect's women are also listed only as "Ensemble" in its credits. Or even that it's completely lacking humor and cleverness. Lots of audience members laughed loudly throughout the production, and there are certainly worse ways to end an evening than watching gray-haired grannies run onstage to join the cast in a kick line.

The trouble, as I see it, lies mainly with this genre's cynicism and condescension. Free of plot or character development, directed so that all ye who enter must abandon hope of nuance, shows like Menopause are the quickest way to turn a buck off members of a neglected population yearning to hear their voices calling back to them from the stage in a meaningful way.

But when a playwright declines even to name her own characters, relegating them simply to the broadest possible interpretation, she ends up speaking for no one, and an entire demographic is left, once again, ridiculed and unheard.

Menopause the Musical

Through Sunday at the Kimmel Center's Perelman Theater, Broad and Spruce Streets. Tickets: $49.50.

Information: 215-731-3333 or www.kimmelcenter.org/broadway