In 1981 I read rave reviews of a one act musical being performed at Playwrights Horizons called March of the Falsettos. 

Its music and lyrics were by some hitherto unknown (to me) composer named William Finn, and it was directed by an equally unknown (to me) James Lapine. (The musical is completely sung through and there is some question as to whether Lapine and Finn worked on shaping it together but I assume that they must have.)

I was traveling to NYC fairly often in those days and staying with George, who you may recall had moved to NYC from Harrisburg around the same time that I moved from there to Philly. 

Normally George and I would have gone to see the show together, but he had already seen it and hated it.

One of the characters in the musical is a psychiatrist, and George, being a psychiatrist himself, fumed at the unprofessional behavior of the musical member of his profession.

I had no such qualms when I saw the show; I loved it from beginning to end. Even though it had some characters that were not necessarily easy to like. But that’s where casting became important because they were all portrayed by actors who were likable and vulnerable. So while I may not have liked some of the things they did, I did enjoy watching how they did them and how they interacted with each other.

I won’t say it was a realistic show, as it was very much a musical, so everything was a bit heightened and exaggerated, but these were flesh and blood people and their wants and desires and flaws and fights seemed to be drawn from real experiences. The show was very gay, very Jewish, and very unflinchingly dealt with sex. In other words not a show designed for Republicans. (That’s a joke, son.)

The set and staging were minimalist with the actors carrying the very few pieces of furniture or other props on and off stage as needed. The tiny orchestra, a band really, four pieces perhaps, was plainly visible above the stage, and during one especially exuberant moment the band members got up and danced along with the cast members.

The plot is set in motion by Marvin, who, having married Trina and fathered a son, Jason, with her, leaves them for another man, Whizzer. Trina has a hard time coping, so Marvin insists that she see his psychiatrist, Mendel, who instantly falls in love with her. Meanwhile, their 10 year old son Jason is also having trouble coping so they try to coax him to see Mendel as well.

The title of the show comes from the fact that the characters, at least the male characters, are all acting childish, either literally or figuratively.

That original cast featured Michael Rupert (Marvin), Alison Fraser (Trina), James Kushner (Jason), Chip Zien (Mendel), and Stephen Bogardus (Whizzer). Chip Zien, you may recall, went on to play the Baker in Into the Woods, and James Lapine was involved with that show as well.

Ten years later a sequel was written, also one act, and eventually the two shows were combined into a single two act musical. I’ll have more to say about that in the next post.

Here is where I would normally include a comic number from the show to help whet your appetite to see it.

But you know me, instead, I’m going to include one of my favorite relatively quiet moments from the show where Trina reflects on how she is tired of all the happy men in her life. In the middle of her reflections the men interrupt with the title song (the silliest number in the show), which seems to represent her dream fantasy of how she thinks about the childish behavior of those men. When it concludes, she continues. This song, along with several other songs, has been completely rewritten for the better for the 2016 revival, which is what we see here, sung by Stephanie J. Block. This is “Trina’s Song”.

Some of the other songs include “My Father’s a Homo”, “I Never Wanted to Love You”, “Marvin Hits Trina”, and the opening number “Four Jews in a Room Bitching”.

I’ll have more to say about the second act and the revisions tomorrow.