Mary Louise Lee is no stranger to “Menopause” … or menopause, for that matter.

Lee toured with the original “Menopause The Musical” about 20 years ago and is back on the road with “Menopause the Musical 2: Cruisin’ Through the Change,” which will be staged Tuesday at Packard Music Hall.

“I tell people that 20 years later, I’m actually in menopause, so I can relate to the character a lot better,” Lee said during a telephone interview from Sioux City, Iowa.

The original “Menopause the Musical,” which made its debut in 2001, features four women of very different backgrounds — Earth mother, professional woman, soap star and Iowa housewife — who meet in a department store’s lingerie section and bond over their shared experiences with the “change of life.”

For the sequel, those women are now friends and decide to take a cruise together, but the formula remains the same — a comedy filled with musical parodies of familiar hits with lyrics adapted to reflect the characters’ life experiences.

Lee played the Professional Woman when she first appeared in “Menopause” and reprises the role on the current tour.

“I think people will remember these characters just because of the connection that they made in the first one,” she said. “The second one is more of the celebration of helping each other out, of really getting that sisterhood and appreciating each other and yourself. Although we’re continuing to go through the change and it’s not a fun thing, but just really kind of appreciating it with laughter and love for each other and ourselves.”

As “Menopause 2” revisits the characters a few years later, the changes each of the characters is dealing with in their lives and with their bodies have evolved.

“I think the first one, from what I can remember, it was pretty much the hot flashes that just came on with me,” Lee said. “Now it’s my memory loss. So as the menopause progresses, it gets a little harder, but with the help of my sisters, the sisterhood that we have, I am able to make it through. We’re going to do this all together.”

That progression gives Lee one of her favorite musical moments.

“One of the songs that I sing is ‘Memory,’ that is from the musical ‘Cats,'” she said. “Of course, I’m talking about losing it. I think that’s probably one of my favorites. It’s funny, but it’s so true, everything that I’m going through and what I’m singing about, and it’s like, ‘Oh goodness, how do I get out of this?’ But I do love all of the parodies that are in the show, as well as the first one, too.”

While “Menopause the Musical” has sold more than 17 million tickets in the last 24 years, the sequel is not the kind of show where audience members will be lost if they haven’t seen the first one.

“There’s a recap of who we are at the beginning of ‘2,’ so you could have not seen the first one and you come in and you still just connect right into it,” Lee said. “I think it’s just a big celebration of both.”

In between her two stints with “Menopause,” Lee made her national television debut on “America’s Got Talent.”

She auditioned in Denver and was invited to travel to New York and performed Aretha Franklin’s “Think” for the four judges — Howie Mandel, Howard Stern, Heidi Klum and Mel B.

She got four yeses from the judges, but despite that success, she didn’t make a second appearance.

“It’s all politics,” Lee said. “Some people go through, some people don’t. I was supposed to go through, but I was never seen again. But it was an amazing experience. I’ll never forget it, to perform at Madison Square Garden. That may never happen to me again, but I can always say that I did. So it was such a blessing, and I smile about it now. It was an exciting time.”

If you go …

WHAT: “Menopause the Musical 2: Cruisin’ Through the Change”

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday

WHERE: Packard Music Hall, 1703 Mahoning Ave NW, Warren

HOW MUCH: Tickets range from $29 to $69 and are available through Ticketmaster.