Reviewing the Drama: Broadway, Off-Broadway, Ballet, Movies, and TV Reviews

There's an informative history of Falsettos on the Lincoln Center Theatre blog. It traces Falsettos ' origins, from In Trousers to March of the Falsettos (nee Four Jews in a Room Bitching ) to Falsettoland , providing background and context, as well as insight into its significance in famed off-Broadway company, Playwrights Horizons. It does not, however, make me like the show more. Falsettos , written by William Finn (score and book) and James Lapine (book), focuses on Marvin (Christian Borle), and his desire for a tight knit family. Set in 1979 (act one) and 1981 (act two), we meet Marvin just after he's left his wife, Trina (Stephanie J. Block), and son, Jason (Anthony Rosenthal), to be with his lover, Whizzer (Andrew Rannells). Marvin must navigate his sexuality, relationships, and familial needs, while Trina and Jason figure out how to move forward. (They'll be aided by Mendel (Brandon Uranowitz), a therapist-turned-Trina's love interest.) In act two,...

A New Brain is William Finn 's deeply personal show about a fledgling composer who discovers there is a problem with his brain. (Finn wrote the show's score; he shares book writing credit with James Lapine .) In the program notes for this Encores! presentation of the show (directed by Lapine), Finn notes that he took some liberties with the details. Finn was not, for example, a struggling composer when he was diagnosed. Still, the emotion Finn packs in is real and honest. Finn's alter ego is Gordon Michael Schwinn (Jonathan Groff). Schwinn is working on a children's show, writing jingles to pay the bills. When he is admitted to the hospital and learns that the problem is in his brain, he is faced with his own mortality. Surrounded by his mother, Mimi (Ana Gasteyer), boyfriend, Roger (Aaron Lazar), and others, he contemplates what he's doing with his life and how; he thinks about the people around him; and he thinks about what his music means to him. In all, S...