Falsettos

Falsettos (1992), a musical play by William Finn (book, music, lyrics), James Lapine (book). [John Golden Theatre, 486 perf.] Three Off‐Broadway musicals by Finn were revised and combined to make this Broadway sung‐through musical. In Trousers (1979) introduced Marvin ( Michael Rupert), a neurotic married man who falls in love with the handsome but demanding Whizzer ( Stephen Bogardus). In March of the Falsettos (1981), Marvin's wife, Trina ( Barbara Walsh), seeks help from his psychiatrist, Mendel ( Chip Zien), and ends up marrying him, much to Marvin's disapproval and the confusion of their son, Jason ( Jonathan Kaplan). The saga concludes with Falsettoland (1990), in which Whizzer is dying of AIDS and Jason's Bar Mitzvah is held in Whizzer's hospital room. Notable songs: I'm Breaking Down; Four Jews in a Room Bitching; I Never Wanted to Love You; What Would I Do? The frantic, contemporary musical avoided camp and easy cliches and found a mainstream audience who responded to its humor, warmth, and honesty. William FINN (b. 1952) was born in Boston and educated at Williams College, where he first started writing offbeat musicals. In addition to the three Marvin plays, he has written Dangerous Games (1989), Romance in Hard Times (1989), and A New Brain (1998), an autobiographical musical about a songwriter finding a new perspective on life after undergoing an operation on a brain tumor.