Lemon Girls or Art for the Artless

The Talking Band (The Golden Toad), which has marched prominently in the downtown theater parade for nearly half a century, returns to La MaMa in a new work by founding member Ellen Maddow. Directed by Paul Zimet and choreographed by Sean Donovan, the play mines the underexploited resources of older women through a comedic look at four friends who are corralled into performing in a community-theater show. The cast includes Maddow and fellow Talking Band mainstay Tina Shepard.