William Finn and James Lapine's groundbreaking, Tony Award-winning musical FALSETTOS comes back to Broadway this fall in an all new production from Lincoln Center Theater. Lapine returns to direct an extraordinary cast featuring Stephanie J. Block (The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Tony nom.), Christian Borle (Something Rotten!, Tony Award), Andrew Rannells (The Book of Mormon, Tony nom), Anthony Rosenthal, Tracie Thoms, Brandon Uranowitz (An American in Paris, Tony nom.) and Betsy Wolfe.
FALSETTOS revolves around the life of a charming, intelligent, neurotic gay man named Marvin, his wife, lover, about-to-be-Bar-Mitzvahed son, their psychiatrist, and the lesbians next door. It's a hilarious and achingly poignant look at the infinite possibilities that make up a modern family... and a beautiful reminder that love can tell a million stories.
In fact, pretty much everything about Lincoln Center Theater's ideally cast Broadway revival, again directed by Lapine with as much humor as sensitivity, makes it pure pleasure. The musical is firmly knotted to its era, unfolding first in 1979, as New Yorker Marvin (Christian Borle) bails on his wife Trina (Stephanie J. Block) and son Jason (Anthony Rosenthal) to move in with his gay lover, Whizzer (Andrew Rannells); it then jumps forward to 1981, the dawn of the AIDS crisis, chronicling how this nontraditional family unit has expanded and then how it gets clobbered by the devastating reality of the time. But the characters are so fresh, the writing so emotionally insightful and the situations played with such feeling that Falsettos hasn't aged a day.
Notwithstanding Mr. Finn's inability to write once-heard-never-forgotten tunes, the musical numbers are cleverly crafted and the overall tone is appropriately tart, this being a show in which no one is very likable. (The title of the first song, 'Four Jews in a Room Bitching,' sums up 'March of the Falsettos' pretty comprehensively.) In 'Falsettoland,' by contrast, a hideously painful situation is portrayed with a sincere but cloying sentimentality that occasionally curdles into kitsch. If you're old enough to have witnessed the AIDS epidemic at first hand, the second act of 'Falsettos' might just make you cry in spite of yourself. If not...well, it probably won't.
1992 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
2016 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Production Broadway |
2019 | US Tour |
US Revival Tour US Tour |
2019 | West End |
West End European Premiere West End |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2017 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical | Brandon Uranowitz |
2017 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical | Stephanie J. Block |
2017 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Musical | Falsettos |
2017 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Christian Borle |
2017 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Musical | Falsettos |
2017 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Musical | Christian Borle |
2017 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical | Andrew Rannells |
2017 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical | Stephanie J. Block |
2017 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical | Andrew Rannells |
2017 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical | Brandon Uranowitz |
2017 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical | Christian Borle |
2017 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical | Stephanie J. Block |
2017 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Falsettos |
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