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| The cast of Falsettos Photo: Belinda Strodder |
It’s 1979 and Marvin has left his wife Trina for a man named Whizzer. Marvin is trying to maintain a tight-knit family, somehow hoping to keep his wife and his son and his lover happy. His psychiatrist, Mendel, seems to be helping, until he falls in love with Trina.
William Finn’s Falsettos
is somewhat of a cult musical; though it has been on Broadway twice, both runs were
quite short. Finn is probably best known for The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and his most
recent Broadway musical was an adaptation of Little Miss Sunshine.
Falsettos is, in
fact, a combination of two shows that originated off-Broadway at either end of
the 1980s, March of the Falsettos and
Falsettoland. March feels like Stephen Sondheim’s Company, a kaleidoscope of songs from people who know the
slightly-unlikable main character.
Falsettoland has a more traditional story arc and while as a second act, it’s
only set two years later in 1981, the world had changed dramatically for gay
men when it was first produced in 1990.
The show is effectively a story and a sequel to that story.
Two books separated by an intermission. And StageArts’ production is brilliant.
In a show as lyrically complex and demanding as Falsettos, an intimate production is fitting.
The “small band” is a solo pianist (David Butler) who gets quite the workout over
the two-hour plus running time. The set is minimalist, a black and white silhouette
of New York, alluding to the chess that son Jason likes to play (though it’s
hard to look at a chess board set in a musical and not think of Chess, which is the wrong mood the be in
for a show like this).
There were a few technical hiccups on opening night with
missed lighting cues, but that’s a minor issue when everything else is so
strong. Director Tyran Parke keeps the pace up throughout the show, with some
rather impressive theatrical trickery that effectively digs into the characters’
moods and psyches. Choreography by Madison Lee is stunning throughout, most memorably
in “Everyone Tells Jason to See a Psychiatrist” and “The Baseball Game”.
Exciting stuff.
The cast is superb and it feels like they’ve been living
with these characters for a long time. Sarah Shahinian’s Trina is the backbone
of the first act and her two solo numbers are striking and heartbreaking. In a
show that feels like a storm, with a family’s lives turned upside-down, Trina’s
spotlight moments are intimate but no less complicated and messy. Shahinian’s
performance is mesmerising.
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| Nick Simpson-Deeks as Mendel Photo by Belinda Strodder |
Psychiatrist Mendel is central to the complicated
machinations of the plot but in lesser hands could have been forgotten at the
fringes of this show; with Nick Simpson-Deeks in the role, this was not allowed
to happen. His conflicted psychiatrist is fascinating; Mendel is both in and
out of control. Simpson-Deeks shows us the inner workings of a man trying to
help this family while also falling in love with Trina. He’s incredible.
Ben Jason-Easton is as great a performer as you’d want in
the role of Jason, the son whose dad has come out and whose therapist is
falling in love with his mother. Jason is at the heart of the second act,
suffering through a more complicated adolescence than most. Jason-Easton knows
his stuff; he makes us laugh and makes us hurt. His performance is remarkable.
Marvin feels like a narrator to his own life until late in
the second act, when he must confront the failing health of his partner,
Whizzer. Falsettos feels much like a
frantic comedy with the occasional dramatic beat until deep into Falsettoland when Whizzer is dying from
the unnamed AIDS. It’s 1981 and at the beginning of the crisis; this family’s
life, as if it wasn’t already a mess, takes a darker turn.
Don Winsor and Sam Ward make a fine pair; their relationship
is always complicated but they move in ways that make Marvin and Whizzer seem
perfectly suited to each other, even when they are breaking up. “What Would I
Do?” is a beautiful, tear-inducing finale that the actors nail.
Falsettos is a remarkable
tale of unconventional and found families set at a time when this story could
have quickly torn them apart. And in this production, it never hits a false
note.
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| Father & son, Falsettos Photo: Belinda Strodder |
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