Line #25 Theatre/Falsettos


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/14231402_300433553657714_2357945378510819519_o.jpg]]
2
3	->''"Homosexual\
4	Father with children,\
5	One bar mitzvah that\
6	Is scrupulously planned.\
7	Lovers come and lovers go,\
8	Lovers fight and sing fortissimo\
9	Give these handsome boys a hand\
10	Welcome to Falsettoland!"''
11	-->--'''Company''', "''Falsettoland''"
12
13	''Falsettos'' is [[ShapedLikeItself a musical with music]] by William Finn and book by Finn and James Lapine. The show is an amalgamation of the latter two musicals in Finn's "Marvin Trilogy": ''March of the Falsettos'' (which was first performed off-Broadway in 1981) and ''Falsettoland'' (first performed in 1990). The two plays are preceded by ''In Trousers'', which is not included in ''Falsettos''. The show opened on Broadway in 1992, starring Michael Rupert as Marvin, Barbara Walsh as Trina and Stephen Bogardus as Whizzer. It closed in 1993 after 587 performances. In the Fall of 2016, ''Falsettos'' was revived for a limited run through January 2017 starring Creator/ChristianBorle as Marvin, Stephanie J. Block as Trina and Creator/AndrewRannells as Whizzer.
14
15	''March of the Falsettos'' centers on Marvin, a neurotic gay Jewish man in 1979 New York. He has recently divorced his wife, Trina, and left his child, Jason, to be with his lover, Whizzer, an attractive younger man. Trina starts seeking treatment from Marvin's psychiatrist, Mendel, and the two eventually fall for each other. Marvin expects both Trina and Whizzer to serve his needs and be loyal to him, an attitude that leaves him alone, trying to salvage his relationship with his son.
16
17	''Falsettoland'' jumps ahead to 1981 where the characters, along with Marvin's neighbors, Charlotte, an esteemed doctor and Cordelia, a kosher caterer, come together to plan Jason's bar mitzvah, though their plans are quickly interrupted by the looming AIDS crisis.
18
19	----
20
21	!!''Falsettos'' contains examples of:
22	* AerithAndBob: Marvin, Trina, Jason, Mendel, Cordelia, Charlotte, and…Whizzer.
23	* AllGaysArePromiscuous:
24	** Whizzer.
25	** Somewhat averted with Marvin. ''In Trousers'' informs us that Whizzer was the first man he ever slept with. It's even implied in Act II that he doesn't sleep with anyone else during the two years they are apart.
26	* AllGaysLoveTheatre: The beginning of act II has Mendel come out with flashlights and point to subjects when he sings about them. The first lyrics is "homosexuals". [[BreakingTheFourthWall He points toward the audience]].
27	* AllJewsAreAshkenazi:
28	** Though not written explicitly, all of the characters are coded as Ashkenazi. The revival gave Mendel the last name "Weisenbachfeld."
29	** All of the foods which Cordelia cooks are Ashkenazi.
30	** In the Act II opener, "Falsettoland", the group are described as "Yiddish-Americans", which more or less confirms that they're Ashkenazi.
31	* AmbiguouslyJewish: In the revival, Cordelia's title was changed from "kosher caterer" to "{{Shiksa\| goddess}} caterer"[[note]]Changed back in the tour cast.[[/note]] . Although the term Shiksa can simply refer to any non-Jewish woman, in accordance with the above trope, it has generally come to be used to refer to a Gentile woman who marries a Jewish man, with the implication that she is trying to tempt him away from his faith. Her partner, Dr. Charlotte, is never explicitly referred to as Jewish in the text, but this change seems to imply that she is intended to be.
32	* AwkwardFatherSonBondingActivity: Marvin describes a few in his attempts to connect to Jason in the third part of "Marvin at the Psychiatrist (A Three-Part Mini Opera)."
33	* BlackComedyRape: "The Rape of Miss Goldberg".
34	* BSODSong: "Marvin Hits Trina".
35	* ButNotTooGay: Marvin is committed to presenting himself as masculine. In his relationship with Whizzer, he must be the breadwinner while Whizzer and Trina cook for him, he refers to Whizzer's interest in fashion as "dreck," and his competitive streak leads to him dumping Whizzer after the latter wins at chess.
36	* CastFullOfGay: Four out of the seven characters are gay.
37	* CharacterNarrator: Whizzer states the titles of some of the songs before they begin.
38	* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Marvin and Trina have two children in ''In Trousers'', but only Jason appears in ''March''. What happened to the second child in the years between the two musicals is unexplained.
39	* ComingOfAgeStory: Jason's story sees him try to grow into his own man after worrying he'll become like his dad.
40	* ComingOutStory: Notably averted - all of the gay characters seem to be out.
41	* DarkReprise: "Another Miracle of Judaism," "Falsettoland (Reprise)" and "More Racquetball"
42	* DysfunctionalFamily: Marvin, Trina and Jason are almost never shown interacting healthily as a family. They even describe themselves as "tragic" and "a mess".
43	* FinalLoveDuet: "What Would I Do"
44	* FirstLawOfTragicomedies: The first act packs in lots of humor, but when it ends [[spoiler:and Whizzer collapses in the middle of a tennis match due to AIDS]], the second act turns darker.
45	* FlorenceNightingaleEffect: Dr. Mendel falls for Trina when she comes in as his patient. Trina is also pretty taken with him. It only gets stronger when he starts making house calls for Jason.
46	* ForegoneConclusion: [[spoiler: That Marvin and/or Whizzer would contract HIV, and likely die of some AIDS-related illness.]] The second act does take place in 1981 after all.
47	* IrrelevantActOpener: The Act I opener "Four Jews in a Room Bitching" is just a retelling of the story of Moses and doesn’t really contribute anything to the plot apart from introducing the characters.
48	* IWantSong: "A Tight-Knit Family"
49	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Although Act I has Marvin veering well into {{Jerkass}} territory, by the end he proves to be a good friend and person at heart.
50	* JewishAndNerdy: Jason would rather stay home and play chess than socialize. Later, the company bemoans that his all-Jewish baseball team is better at "reading Latin" than actually playing baseball.
51	* JewishComplaining: The opening song, "Four Jews in a Room Bitching," is all about four Jews complaining about their less than ideal state.
52	* JewishMother: Trina
53	* JewsLoveToArgue: Most of Marvin's interactions in the first act and the first half of the second act are spent arguing.
54	* LikeFatherUnlikeSon: In "My Father's a Homo," Jason, at age 10, worries that he, like his father, will also turn out to be gay. At age 12, Jason sings "Miracle of Judaism" which proves that in this regard, he is nothing like his father.
55	* MassiveMultiplayerEnsembleNumber:
56	** "Year of the Child".
57	** "The Baseball Game".
58	* MinimalistCast: Only five, later seven, characters appear in the show. No background characters are shown.
59	* NoAntagonist: While Marvin is around terrible enough to be logically seen as the [[{{Villain Protagonist}} bad guy]] in Act I (as well as the original ''March of the Falsettos''), the second half of the play focuses entirely on the oncoming of Jason's bar mitzvah, which is complicated by Whizzer's case of AIDS.
60	* OppositesAttract: Marvin and Whizzer admit that the only thing they have in common is a love for [[JewsLoveToArgue arguing]].
61	* ParentalLoveSong: "Father to Son"
62	* ParentalSubstitute: Whizzer to Jason. Initially, Jason purposefully annoys his parents by going to Whizzer for advice rather than listening to his biological parents. By the end, it's clear that both love each other as if they were family.
63	* ParentWithNewParamour: Jason has good relationships with both of his parents' significant others:
64	** While angry at his father for leaving the family to be with Whizzer, Jason ''adores'' Whizzer himself, much to his parents' dismay. [[spoiler: He even rearranges his Bar Mitzvah to be at the hospital so that Whizzer can attend, because Whizzer is family.]]
65	** Mendel starts out as Jason's not-so-helpful therapist, who Jason is quite skeptical of. But Jason later encourages Mendel to act on his feelings for his mother, to make both of them happy.
66	* ThePatriarch: This is how Marvin sees himself, especially in Act I. The rest of the characters don't always regard him in the same way.
67	* PatterSong:
68	** "Love is Blind".
69	** "High-School Ladies at 5 O’Clock".
70	* TheSongBeforeTheStorm: Either "What More Can I Say?" or "Something Bad Is Happening", depending on where you draw the line.
71	* TheyveComeSoFarSong: Pretty much any song with Marvin and Whizzer after they get back together, but special mention goes to "What More Can I Say?" and "Racquetball".
72	* QuarrelingSong: "Year of the Child" and "Round Tables, Square Tables" in the off-Broadway ''Falsettoland'' which became "The Fight" in ''Falsettos''.
73	** Also "Thrill Of First Love" and "Tight-Knit Family (Reprise)".
74	* QueerRomance: Marvin/Whizzer and Charlotte/Cordelia.
75	* RealMenHateAffection: This was mostly played straight with Marvin and Whizzer in the original production, but is averted in the revival.
76	* RunningGag: In the revival, one is made of Cordelia being the only non-Jewish character in the show. Special attention is paid to her inability to pronounce 'gefilte fish' despite being a caterer specializing in Jewish cuisine.
77	* SanitySlippageSong: "I'm Breaking Down," which also happens to be the {{Show Stopper}}.
78	* SelfSoothingSong:
79	** In "A Day in Falsettoland", Mendel assures himself at least he has Trina while dealing with annoying patients. Trina, stressed about her son's bar mitzvah and Marvin getting back together with Whizzer, is assured by Mendel that, "Everything will be all right", which she then repeats to herself throughout the song.
80	** In "Holding to the Ground", Trina tries to keep her head up while she struggles with the shifting notions of what she expected her life to be [[spoiler: and the hospitalization of her ex-husband's boyfriend from AIDS]]. This includes a DarkReprise of the "Everything will be all right" lyrics from "A Day in Falsettoland".
81	* SetSwitchSong: "Holding to the Ground" as the set is changed to [[spoiler: Whizzer's hospital room]]. Also serves as TheElevenOClockNumber.
82	** To a lesser extent, "Miracle of Judaism" covers the change from Marvin's house to the stands for "The Baseball Game."
83	* ShotgunWedding: implied about Trina and Marvin's marriage in "I Never Wanted to Love You"
84	-->'''Trina:''' Our hands were tied\
85	My father cried\
86	'You'll marry!'\
87	We married!
88	* SungThroughMusical: Although there is some spoken dialogue, it's all brief and and vastly outnumbered by the singing in each scene.
89	* ThirteenthBirthdayMilestone: Discussed and ZigZagged. The second act [[note]] originally its own one-act play, ''Falsettoland'' [[/note]] centers around preparation for Jason's Bar Mitzvah.
90	** Initially, the adults in his life consider it a bigger deal than he does -- Jason himself sees it as "a celebration where I get presents", more fixated on which girls from his class to invite than the meaning of being a man. At one point he threatens to cancel it just so his divorced parents will stop fighting about it.
91	** However, when [[spoiler:Whizzer's [[TragicAIDSStory AIDS symptoms make him bedridden]], Jason is forced to make a mature decision over whether or not to cancel, and decides to hold the Bar Mitzvah in the hospital room, giving up the girls and the big party so he can be with the people who matter most to him. Whizzer dies soon after, marking an end of innocence for Jason.]]
92	* TragicAIDSStory: [[spoiler: Act 2 becomes this, with Whizzer succumbing to AIDS by the end of the show. Notably, the disease is never called as such due to the 1981 setting, but is generally understood to be this. By extension, Marvin is implied to have contracted HIV from Whizzer, and may have died not long after the end of the show.]]

Context Theatre / Falsettos