'Falsettos' Marches Again, But Is This AIDS-Era Musical Still Relevant?

In 1992, Broadway audiences (and Tony voters) laughed, cried and cheered their way through William Finn and James Lapine's musical "Falsettos," based on two parts of the pair's previous Off-Broadway trilogy about Marvin, a long-married Jewish man who announces he's gay and eventually falls in love with a man named Whizzer -- whose death from AIDS affects everyone around them, including Marvin's ex-wife, Trina; his teenage son, Jason; Trina's new husband, Mendel; and Marvin's lesbian best friends, Charlotte (a doctor) and Cordelia (a caterer).

Now, nearly a quarter of a century later, the work returns to Broadway's Walter Kerr Theatre, coproduced by Lincoln Center Theater, with a cast led by Christian Borle (Marvin), Andrew Rannells (Whizzer), Stephanie J. Block (Trina), Tracie Thoms (Charlotte) and Betsy Wolfe (Cordelia). EDGE recently spoke with Finn, Block, Thoms and Wolfe about the show and its impact on audiences in 2016.

EDGE: Bill, do you have any worries about Falsettos being seen as a "period piece?"

WILLIAM FINN: Obviously, I had trepidations about bringing it back at this time. But Andr� Bishop [the head of Lincoln Center Theater] went and saw the original production in the Lincoln Center library and assured me that it holds up wonderfully. I trust him totally, and that statement took a large weight off of me. And while it doesn't feel antiquated to me, we'll have to see how other people feel. In fact, I've never looked forward to previews of a show as much as I am now, because I really want to see the audience reaction. I know this is such a different time than the original.

EDGE: So did you decide to change anything in the script or score?

WF: Nothing has been substantially updated; all I did was change some lyrics -- lyrics that have bothered me for 25 years, because I always felt they were "lazy."

EDGE: How do you think younger audiences, many who weren't born at the time the show takes place, will react to the show?

WF: I teach at NYU in the Musical Theatre program, where they should know about this show, and they don't. They know nothing about this time -- and they should! Of course, I know I have the advantage that I wrote this show at the time all of this was happening.

STEPHANIE J. BLOCK: Even not being so young, while I "knew" about the AIDS situation in the 1980s, I grew up in Republican Orange County, California. And we were so on the periphery that when they would refer to the "gay cancer," or whatever they called it -- most of the time there wasn't even a name -- it seemed like something very far away that didn't affect "the rest of us."

Coming to this piece now, especially as a mom, it touches me so much, but in a different way than I expected. It's not just an "AIDS musical" -- it's about humanity, it's about family, it's about relationships. And, yes, it's about this terrible disease that affected everyone, whether you knew it or not. So, to me, it's not a period piece; it feels very present. I don't feel like we're in a time capsule of any kind.

WF: I think there's also humor in the show. And it's important that things be funny, because when you find common ground for humor, things don't date in the same way. I hope the laughs that were there are still there. And Stephanie is hilarious -- in fact, all the Trinas we've cast over the years have been funny.

BETSY WOLFE: I think what Bill and Stephanie said is so true. Life is sometimes hysterical, sometimes heartbreaking, and that's what going to resonate with today's audiences. This is a fantastic example of a show that truly expresses everything. You will feel all the feels.

TRACIE THOMS: While this is definitely a musical, it almost feels like a play to me. It's very immersive, very complex. The characters are so nuanced, and the words they say are so specific. Each song is so layered; no song is all serious, all funny, or all heartbreaking. That's one reason I am not afraid of it being viewed as a "period piece."

Honestly, though, that idea doesn't bother me. In fact, the more we commit to the atmosphere of the 1970s and 1980s, the more the show will resonate now with audiences. Everything is a ripple. I remember when my younger brother's godfather died of AIDS in the early 1990s, and I didn't know he had it. I remember how we had to process it, and if it meant he was gay, and how hard that was.

EDGE: The relationship of Cordelia and Charlotte feels central to the piece, even if they are in some way "supporting characters." Was that a conscious decision in writing it?

WF: They could have just been side characters, but once James and I decided to put them into the quartet "Four Unlikely Lovers," they really did become central. That song is so important to the core of the show.

EDGE: So it's important that the actresses who play them have great chemistry, right?

BW: Exactly. We moved in with each other immediately. We've been living together for three or four months [laughs].

TT: The funny thing is, I only auditioned with Betsy, and it was great. We were friends before, now we're lovers. But it's really the way our characters are written that not only allows us to know exactly how we function within the group, but there's all this room to discover our own dynamic as a couple and how we function outside the group.

EDGE: Tracie, do you feel that being in this show will bring in an African-American audience?

TT: I am part of a group of actors of color who talk about this issue in casting, and I know there was a meeting when "Falsettos" came up; and people were so happy that this musical, which traditionally doesn't have actors of color, has me in it. Especially because it's perceived as such a Jewish show. But I think in terms of my casting, it's been so interesting for me to explore what Charlotte, as the only person of color in this group, is experiencing. I am a fish out of water, and I have to acknowledge it. I want people to pay attention to it. I don't want to just be black on the skin only.

SJB: In fact, we had to change one line, when Jason comes in at one point and says to us all: "You people are so white."

TT: If it had stayed in, I would have had to react to that!