Florida Theater Review by Myra Chanin . . . .
The last three performances of ArtBuzz’s seriously amusing, amazingly witty, agonizingly poignant, heartbreakingly real staging of William Finn’s sung-thru musical, Falsettos, are (Oy Vey!) completely sold out. Quite a feat for a venue located in an off-off-off I-95, unamplified, 37-seat, black box theater on the wrong side of the Fort Lauderdale tracks. When the performance ended, I was emotionally drained by both the work and the company’s heartfelt, passionate performance; but I immediately told everyone I knew and several astonished strangers to get tickets to see it. Some may have, because when I last looked there were no tickets to be had, not even for ready money. Never underestimate what persuasive words from a big mouth can accomplish.
Falsettos are singers who limit the use of their vocal apparatus in order to sing notes in a range higher than their normal range. Composer, lyricist, librettist William Finn, my falsetto maven, applies this word wryly to people who, in the 1970s, lived outside the normal range, starting with homosexuals, but welcomes “short insomniacs, mothers with children, spiky lesbians, women internists, and a shiksa caterer waiting to expand,” under the same umbrella with his “teeny, tiny band.”
The history of Falsettos begins in 1979 when Finn created the music, lyrics, and libretto, and directed his first attempt at telling Marvin’s story about a monogamous Jewish man trying to manage his concealed preference for sex with men rather than sex with women. He leaves his trying-to-be-perfect wife Trina and their 10-year-old son Jason for Whizzer, a dissolute pretty boy who Marvin finds insanely attractive and considers who Marvin the same. Marvin takes on the job of trying to allay Jason’s anxiety about the likelihood of Marvin’s homosexual genes passing onto him.
The result? Not great. Thirty Off-Broadway performances and panned by the New York Times.
Undeterred and persistent, Finn’s second shot (in 1981) at Marvin’s story, March of the Falsettos, added new songs, a new one-act libretto, and collaborating writer/director James Lapine, adroit at staging scenes Finn considered unstageable. Marvin now desires a “happily ever after ending” with an extended family that welcomes Whizzer; but his ex-wife Trina’s breakdown makes Marvin offer her his appointments with his shrink, Mendel, who finds Trina attractive and quickly becomes Marvin’s ex-shrink, Trina’s suitor, and soon moves in with her and Jason. After ten months of togetherness, constant arguments and a lack of common interest splits up Marvin and Whizzer, Trina tells Marvin she’s accepted Mendel’s proposal. Bad timing.
It ran for eight months at two different Off-Broadway theaters and entranced Frank Rich, the New York Times theater critic, who called it “a musical find with songs so fresh that after a few bars, one feels the unmistakable, revivifying charge of pure talent.”
Finn had higher standards. He found the ending unsatisfactory. So, it was back to the keyboard for him.
In 1990, Falsettoland, Finn’s last one-act attempt at the Marvin trilogy, ran for about 200 performances Off-Broadway with a new focus—arguments between Trina and Marvin and her now husband and Marvin’s ex-shrink Mendl, about the Bar Mitzvah Jason’s doesn’t want. Jason invites the athletic Whizzer to a game where Jewish boys who can’t play baseball . . . play baseball. Whizzer suggests Jason hold the bat differently, and OMG, Jason hits the ball and gets on base. Whizzer and Marvin also reconnect. New additions to the cast are Marvin’s lesbian neighbors, Dr. Charlotte, an internist, and the Doc’s inamorata Cornelia, a would-be caterer. Charlotte is concerned about a life-threatening new disease that’s killing gay men. It’s AIDS, and it soon fells Whizzer. God ignores Jason’s prayer for a miracle cure, inspiring Jason to hold his Bar Mitzvah in Whizzer’s room, right before Whizzer expires.
The Times’ Rich called it “a musical of jubilance and courage, both entertaining and devastating to witness. Never maudlin, clinical, or didactic.”
In 1992 Finn and Lapine seamlessly merged the best of the previous one-acts into an exhilarating and poignant two-act masterpiece, Falsettos, about a warring modern family divided by sexuality but united in love and death. Finn and Lapine each bring home a Falsetto Tony: Finn for Best Score and Lapine for Best Book of a Musical.
Most of the characters in Falsettos are Jewish. My extensive search on the internet indicated most of the players aren’t. They really fooled me, as they have become totally Jewish by their total immersion into the characters—especially when they are arguing, and each one is convinced he/she/they/it are right!
Why did I spend a week writing a review about a show with no unsold seats? To extol local artists in the hope that this production will be back on the boards in the same place with the same cast and same crew. But in the interim, here’s a boldfaced list of the actors. Keep an eye out for them. They are very professional. Their credits would fill a 10-foot-high wall. If you should happen to see any of their names in a newspaper, go buy tickets and let them knock your socks off. They are very professional.
Larry Buzzeo was Marvin. Christopher Ross-Dybash was Whizzer. Steven Fuentes was Mendel. The amazing* Jackson Goddard was Jason. He gets an asterisk because he is the most gifted seventh grader I’ve ever come across. Seana Nicol was Trina. Heather Simsay was Dr. Charlotte. Casey Sacco was Cordelia. In their hands, each character came to life and every song was a showstopper. Each one was remarkable, especially Larry Buzzeo, Ross-Dybach, Steven Fuentes, and Jackson Goodard, as well as Seana Nicol, and Heather Simsay
And then there’s Micheal Ursua, the director/music director who assembled the sensational cast and outstanding crew, and who made this Falsettos so miraculous thanks to thought-out recorded soundtracks, modest sets, off-the-wall costumes, and endless imagination. The show has so many outstanding songs, but the final duet between Marvin in the flesh and Whizzer’s spirit is remarkably wise about the lasting effects of love.
“What would I be if I hadn’t met you? Who would I blame my life on?”
That question has remained in my brain, and I know the answer, even though he’s no longer here to receive my gratitude.
One last note: there is a PBS recording online of the 2017 Lincoln Center revival of Falsettos; if you find it you can see a performance that received nine Tony nominations; but in my opinion, you’ll find it several cuts below the Falsettos of Lauderdale.
Falsettos. Through May 19 at Fort Lauderdale’s Empire Stage (1140 N Flagler Drive, Ft. Lauderdale, FLORIDA). www.empirestage.com
Photos: Amy Mahon