'Falsettos' Great Production, Flawed Show

      I am not a fan of William Finn’s songs, but I do have respect for the anger he must have felt, living in New York in the 1980s and watching the AIDS epidemic sweep through the gay community. The 1992 musical about that period, “Falsettos,†co-written with director/writer James Lapine, won a number of Tonys and Drama Desk Awards and deserves to be seen in its excellent production at the Rhinebeck Center for the Performing Arts. It delivers in full measure the angst and chaos that fill the lives and psyches of seven people living in a Manhattan-type place called Falsettoland.

    In Act One, Marvin tells his troubles to his shrink, Mendel, after leaving his wife Trina and son Jason for a stud named Whizzer. The show revolves around these five. In Act Two the action moves from 1979 to 1981 and introduces two lesbians (one an internist, one a Jewish mother-type /cook) who live next door.

  The tone of the show is set immediately by the opening number, “Four Jews in a Room Bitching,†sung without preamble by the three men and a boy on the verge of his bar mitzvah. Jason will later sing, “I’m too smart for my own good,†and I felt this way about the songs.

sosongs. I have become intimately acquainted with Finn’s other Tony-winning show, THE 25th ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE, to be presented next weekend [Feb 25-28] at Salisbury School. In both shows, the words are clever, yet their rhythms and rhyme schemes, as well as some of the actual musical phrases, are heavily indebted to Stephen Sondheim, with incessant motoric accompaniments that lack the flair of those in COMPANY, FOLLIES or A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC. Finn occasionally lets up the Sturm and Drang—there is virtually no dialogue in the piece—with some formulaic soft-rock ballads or a pastiche vaudeville tune like Trina’s sensational show-stopping “I’m Breaking Down,†performed to the hilt by Maria Hickey, who cavorts on the kitchen counter with a mean carving knife and slices through three carrots and a banana, the symbolism of which I will leave to the gentle reader.

   Director Kevin Archambault and music director James Fitzwilliam have given the ensemble’s gyrations and tight vocals a sparkling luster (with an accent on the “lustâ€) and it is a pleasure to see the ways in which this Greek/Old Testament comedy/tragedy plays out through the fine work by the cast. Bill Ross as Marvin holds his own as a man unsure of his real feelings, angry at being pressured to marry, and trying to keep from alienating Jason, sensitively portrayed by 12-year old Thomas Netter. Both actors have poignant moments in the spotlight, Ross wondering about love and life, Netter pondering religion and death.

Jim Nurre, as Whizzer, has an excellent, smooth voice and a body to match. The shrink, played by Johnny Dell, moves from his initial obsession with Trina’s accessories to becoming a full-fledged member of this neurotic household. The two other women, Molly Parker-Myers and Victoria Howland, get to offer their own spin on urban life in numbers that display their individual talents well.

   “Falsettos†runs Feb. 28. Tickets are $22/$20 at 845-876-3080 or www.centerforperformingarts.org.

Donald Sosin
dsosin@comcast.net
860-435-4687
Visit our website at oldmoviemusic.com
My  blog:    https://www.sosin.blogspot.com

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