We had excellent seats in the middle of the second row facing the stage. The very versatile three-member band opened the show including Aaron Lamb on piano and synth, Andy Garness on drums and percussion, and Nick Hall on woodwinds.
The production begins with a bang with the four male leads (Nicolas Main – Whizzer, Josh Doyle – Jason, Bruce Hassl – Mendel and John Lutyens – Marvin) standing atop movable furniture blocks. By the end of the opening, the audience is held captive. John Lutyens is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.
Falsettos is a production of William Finn and James Lapin’s Tony-winning musical. The play tells the story of Marvin, a Jewish family man, who leaves his wife and son for a male lover during the beginning of the AIDS crisis in 1980s New York City.
My favorite character is the youngest actor, Josh Doyle, playing the son Jason and he knows struggles. He tries to maintain his balance as his changing world when his parents’ squabble and break up. Doyle holds his own and has a very nice voice.
The changing family involves psychiatrist Mendel (Bruce Hassl) who falls in love with the ex-wife Trina (Meg McLynn) as her family is still falling apart. Change is not always just bad or good. Happy endings are great to see, but don’t always come out the way we hope. Falsettos could be about the effect of any of the epidemics in modern life.
At each set change the actors themselves move the block furniture pieces into different compositions. Reality sometimes works double-time trying to fit each little part together and sometimes succeeds. Whizzer (Nicholas Main) with Marvin (John Lutyens) hold on to each other as their lives are upended by Whizzer’s AIDS.
Corey McDaniel directed, with music direction by Aaron Lamb. The music was as much a part of the story as the words themselves were. My favorite film about AIDS is Pride, a 2004 English film about the l984 epidemic. It also uses friendship and family as major supports for AIDS and life in general.
Director Corey Mc Daniel comments, see:
Comments from the two leads, see:
Actor interviews, – see:
Falsettos is incredibly relevant. . . I think a lot of people are going to find themselves in this show. It’s a moment in our history which may have been even less forgiving than the present time. It also a call for us to open our hearts to those around us whose “difference” enriches our lives.
