‘Falsettos’ Musical Making a Broadway Revival

Illustrations by Devin Singh

“Falsettos” is a musical introduced to the world in 1992 that saw a very successful Broadway revival in 2016, which is what I’ll focus on.

This Tony Award-nominated performance with its small cast of seven stands out with Christian Borle and Andrew Rannells starring. There are 34 unique songs in the two-act play, which runs two hours and 30 minutes.

The Broadway run with this cast closed in January 2017, but thankfully there are two live recordings that allow many people a chance to experience a large part of the show.

The action takes place in the late 1970s and early ’80s in the Big Apple – New York City. The focal characters are Marvin (Borle), who is in a struggling marriage with his wife, Trina, and their son, Jason. Marvin is dealing with homosexuality, Trina isn’t happy and Jason is caught up in a dysfunctional family that doesn’t understand him.

Other key roles are Whizzer (Rannells) – a family friend and Marvin’s lover – Mendel, the family therapist, and Cordelia and Dr. Charlotte, a couple who are friends of Marvin.

Falsettos is as relevant today as it was in 2016, in that it highlights the facts of life such as sexuality, masculinity, religion, and family. The primary focus is the father-son relationship between Marvin and Jason. While Marvin is coping with a failing marriage and broken household, he is trying to keep it all together for his son, ultimately.

The show explores the doubts and growth taking place for each individually, and together, as they try to make things work for what they value most.

The story resonates to this day with the open sexuality that is explored and its connection with masculinity and how to grow as a person. It reminds us that we are all still growing, even if we are not kids anymore. all trying to make things work. It highlights the process of self-discovery with those we take along the way – wrapped in an emotional package of a musical that is well worth seeing.