Falsettos, Directed by James Lapine and Written by William Finn, is a beautifully touching musical with an allstar cast. Falsettos follows a man named Marvin(Christian Borle), who divorces his now ex-wife Trina(Stephanie J. Block) to run off with his new boyfriend Whizzer(Andrew Rannels). The rest of the story follows Marvin, Whizzer, Trina, Jason(Marvins son played by Anthony Rosenthal), and Mendel(Marvins psychiatrist and Trina’s new husband, played by Brandon Uranowitz) as they navigate through family life in the late 70s and the aids epidemic of the early 80s.
The cast is relatively small with only 7 actors. Those actors being the ones mentioned previously as well as Besty Wolfie as Cordelia, and Tracie Thoms as Charlotte. The whole cast delivers mind blowingly amazing performances that really bring the story to life. Stephanie J. Block(Into the Woods, Wicked, The Boy From Oz), Christian Borle(Spamalot, Legally Blond, Peter and The Starcatcher, Some Like It Hot, Little Shop of Horrors), and Andrew Rannels(The Book of Mormon, Hedwig and The Angry Inch, Hamilton, The Boys in The Band), all deliver specifically emotional performances that are really touching and show just how amazing the show really is.
The show was created, and written by William(Bill) Finn, who is best known for ‘Falsettos’, and ‘25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’. The show is directed by the legendary James Lapine, who is best known for directing ‘Annie’, ‘25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’, ‘Falsettos’, as well as writing ‘Into The Woods’. This version of Falsettos is the 2016 revival that was filmed and aired on PBS.
Falsettos originally debuted on Broadway in 1992 as a combination of the two off Broadway musicals ‘March of The Falsettos’, and ‘Falsetto Land’. There is a third off Broadway show that the other two were based on. This show is ‘In Trousers’ again, written by William Finn, and directed by James Lapine. ‘In Trousers’ follows Marvin reminiscing on his early life. Although ‘March of The Falsettos’ serves as the first act of ‘Falsettos’ and ‘Falsetto Land’ serves as the second act, ‘In Trousers’ has no presence in ‘Falsettos’. ‘Falsettos’ genre isn’t completely clear but it could be described as a tragicomedy, due to the duality of comedic and heavily emotional scenes throughout the musical.
The show uses no on stage effects throughout the entire show besides a couple of lighting tricks. There aren’t really any sets either. The show uses many differently shaped foam blocks, which the actors set up to act as furniture, props, and sets. The minimalist set design allows the viewer to focus just on the amazing story, songs, and characters instead of over the top sets and effects.
However there are a couple actual set items used in the show. In some scenes there are beds, and couches. However a majority of the set is made up of foam blocks. The show’s pacing is pretty fast but doesn’t seem so while watching. What this means is that the show takes place over the course of three years but it doesn’t feel very fast paced while watching, and the show takes its time with scenes and character development.
There is a 2 year time jump from 1979 to 1981 between acts one and two so that is where a lot of the time comes from. The 2016 production of the show, the one this review covers, only ran for 84 shows on Broadway running from October 27th 2016 to January 8th 2017. This may make it seem like a failure but it was planned to be a limited run show from the start. During this run it earned itself 5 tony nominations for best revival of a musical, best actor in a musical(Christian Borle), best featured actor in a musical(Andrew Ranells), best featured actor in a musical(Brandon Uranowitz), and best featured actress in a musical(Stephanie J. Block).
It’s safe to say this show was a huge success that people still connect with today. This show mainly appeals to teens and adults as it may be a little inappropriate for younger kids. The show has a TV certificate of Tv-14. ‘Falsettos’ is regarded as a special musical because it’s not only a show people enjoy, it’s a show people deeply connect with. Even today 8 years after the show ended thousands of people discover the show for the first time through the recorded version and fall in love with the brilliantly written story, characters, and soundtrack.
The show is entirely sung through with the soundtrack being 2 hours and 12 minutes long. Because of this the songs have to really move along the story and convey the characters emotions. This is one of the main reasons that the soundtrack is so emotional and has such rich storytelling throughout. The entire officially recorded show that aired on PBS is available on youtube right now for free. The show did also have a limited run in theaters playing at select theaters in America, however box office data for this run is unknown. But the box office data for the Broadway run is known where it grossed over 8 million dollars over its 84 performance run.
Interestingly enough the original 1992 Broadway run ran for 486 performances and grossed about 24 million dollars adjusted for inflation(11 million not adjusted). Compare this to one of William Finn and James Lapines other shows ‘25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’ which ran for over 1,130 performances between 2005 and 2008 and grossed over 65 million dollars adjusted for inflation(45 million not adjusted). There’s no question that William Finn and James Lapine are a super successful team when it comes to writing and directing. Overall ‘Falsettos’ is a funny and emotional musical with an amazing cast and soundtrack. This musical has earned itself a 9.5/10 star rating.
