A wonderfully sung musical from a late, great composer

Washington Post

16-05-2025

They try all sorts of ways to be happy in the musical 'Falsettos': therapy, religion, fitness, chess, love many times over. At one point they even try willing it: As one repeated lyric advises, 'Why don't you feel all right for the rest of your life?'
Can we? Why don't we? Characters flail about, 'itching for answers,' posing half-baked notions, throwing out metaphors, contradicting each other and themselves. They're all just as confused as we are about how to cope with flawed bodies and brains, especially as life becomes absurd, unfair and tragic.
A wonderfully sung production at the Keegan Theatre is timed to D.C.'s WorldPride celebration, and comes just a month after songwriter William Finn died at 73. While he was known for the crowd-pleasing 'The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,' 'Falsettos' is his main legacy, aided by a book co-written with James Lapine (known for 'Into the Woods' and 'Sunday in the Park With George'). The show arrived on Broadway in 1992, just a year ahead of 'Angels in America' — another brilliant, neurotic, messy, two-part show in which characters confront the AIDS crisis while dealing with the complexities of sexual orientation and religious identity.
We start in the wake of Marvin (John Loughney) coming out as gay and leaving his wife, Trina (Katie McManus), for his lover, Whizzer (Kaylen Morgan), confusing their 12-year-old son Jason (the understudy Henry Winfield Gill in the performance I saw). Trina becomes the patient — and, eventually, wife — of Marvin's psychiatrist, Mendel (Ryan Burke). Jason is dragging his feet toward a bar mitzvah, leading to an unexpectedly heart-wrenching climax that shows him truly becoming an adult. (The characters are unabashedly Jewish but more culturally so, giving the religious aspect a begrudging nod: 'Days like this, we almost believe in God' they sing wryly at one point.) Joining them all in the second act is a lesbian couple: an eager bar mitzvah caterer (Kylie Clare Truby) and a doctor (Shayla Lowe) recognizing the unfolding AIDS epidemic.
Unlike Stephen Sondheim's 'Company,' another New York-set show about romantic ups and downs, 'Falsettos' is more specifically of its time and place, with songs that are more rough around the edges, intentionally imprecise. A number of gems emerge. In the showstopper 'I'm Breaking Down,' Trina grapples with her marriage's sad, strange turn. In 'The Baseball Game,' the ensemble offers an amusing running commentary while 'watching Jewish boys who cannot play baseball play baseball.' The show culminates with the poignant 'What Would I Do?' in which Marvin, after some terrible decisions, finally seems to appreciate what he's had.
The Keegan is an especially appropriate venue, given that when it was called the Church Street Theater it hosted an ambitious 1997 production consisting of all three shows in Finn's semiautobiographical Marvin trilogy: the two off-Broadway ones that got mashed together to create 'Falsettos' ('March of the Falsettos' and 'Falsettoland'), along with 'In Trousers,' a prequel about Marvin's upbringing.
Kurt Boehm's new staging takes place in a simple, abstract, white cityscape (set by Matthew J. Keenan). At times the movement feels a little clunky, and the shifts in Marvin's feelings toward other characters aren't always clear (perhaps even to him) — especially when he hits Trina, which feels unconvincing no matter how hurt and confused he is.
But the harmonies come through loud and clear, in the superb singing of the main foursome of McManus, Morgan, Burke and Loughney. This 'Falsettos' is a rare opportunity to hear the music of a sadly departed master, sung by characters who show us how complicated the search for happiness can be.
Falsettos, through June 15 at the Keegan Theatre in Washington. Two hours, thirty minutes, with an intermission. keegantheatre.com.