NOT A FALSE NOTE IN DEZART
PERFORMS’ WONDERFUL PRODUCTION
William Finn and James Lapine‘s two-act musical Falsettos follows Marvin (Tim Ewing), an appealing, brainy, anxious, obsessive, wealthy Jewish gay man who struggles to create a tight-knit family out of his eclectic array of core relationships: an ex-wife Trina (Stephanie Lynne Mason), new lover Whizzer (Patrick Joseph Wallace), adolescent son Jason (William Spitz), psychiatrist Mendel (Skylar Gaines), and “neighbors who are lesbians from next door” Dr. Charlotte and her wife Cordelia, a Kosher caterer (Laura Stearns and Maggie Barry). Amidst a series of monumental life changes from 1979 to 1982—including his son’s impending Bar Mitzvah and the onset of what was then known as “Gay Plague”—he is forced to reckon with his own views on love, responsibility and what it means to be a man. The two acts at first seem disconnected, having originally been two separate plays, March of the Falsettos (1981) and Falsettoland (1990), although they are woven back together towards the end. The title of the show, according to Finn, who died on April 7, comes from the comparison of the characters to a falsetto voice—a falsetto is something that is out of the normal range, as are the characters in his musical.
A caveat: while there is power, humor and pathos in these very lovable, imperfect, neurotic people who struggle to survive day-to-day life without breaking down as they march along, I am not a fan of William Finn’s score; it’s an acquired taste. It’s as quirky as the family portrayed, and with no standards and many of the songs almost like opera recitativo, I don’t understand how it won a Tony in 1992 for Finn’s score and Lapine’s book (I don’t like Dear Evan Hanson, either, so it’s obvious that I’m not always in tune with conventional wisdom).
However, the Dezart Performs‘ production, directed and choreographed by Dennis Courtney, shows how even what I think of as a meh musical can shine when the production is top-notch. The accomplished cast kept me in the story, sympathizing with the unfortunates onstage. This is quite an accomplishment. I highly recommend it, and suggest seeing it during its second and final weekend. And the show packs an emotional punch, especially in the second act. So if you are a fan of the score, you may be doubly affected.
If you haven’t seen Falsettos before, be forewarned: Although it has many funny moments, often based on this quirky meshuga Jewish family, this sung-through musical is quite dramatic. The first act goes through the family’s major changes in 1979, but the second act completely changes direction in a tragic way when one of the new characters, a physician, can’t figure out why so many of her bachelor patients are coming down with a new disease with horrible symptoms. Watching Dr. Charlotte’s desperation as she describes the horrible disease emerging among unmarried men is a kick in the kishkas. Much of the audience, which seemed to have consisted primarily of older male couples the day I attended, undoubtedly remembered what it was like to watch their friends waste away from this unknown, horrifying disease. But for those of us fortunate enough to have escaped personal contact with HIV, we all remember the horrors of COVID. “You gotta die sometime” is a repeated line in Falsettos, but why so early and so horribly?
The vocals are fabulous under music director and conductor Stephen Hulsey on the keys with his teeny-tiny band: David Young (reeds), Brent Alan Huffman (synth), and Brad Vaughn (percussion). Rick Bluhm‘s main set, a stylized rendition of New York skyscrapers, and Christopher Metzger‘s costumes—which, for the wife and mother, consists of the knee-length skirts and button-down, collared shirts that I used to wear—are spot-on. They perfectly evoke the period, when Reagan was still promising to cut the deficit, and Nancy Reagan was declaiming “Just Say No.” The Reagans mirrored the prejudice against HIV, with Reagan not even acknowledging the disease four years into the pandemic (after Rock Hudson became ill). But there was sympathy, too, which Falsettos chooses to stick with, which is part of what makes it an emotional show, rather than one that is political.
Still, the show has quite a bit to say to modern audiences. Trump’s decision to end PEPFAR, the program to provide antiretroviral drugs to HIV-infected Africans, might kill a million people a year. Falsettos brings home the horror of their deaths. It is not much of a leap for an audience member to conclude that foregoing COVID or measles vaccines when we can so easily protect ourselves spits in the eyes of the many men who lost their lives to HIV.
photos by David A. Lee
Falsettos
Dezart Performs
Pearl McManus Theater at Palm Springs Woman’s Club, 314 S Cahuilla Road in Palm Springs
two hours ten minutes with intermission
Fri at 7; Sat and Sun at 2 and 7
ends on April 27, 2025
for tickets ($57-$66, incl. fees), call 760.322.0179 or visit Dezart Performs
Dezart Performs is moving next season to what was the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Palm Springs, and plans its first performance in the new space in November 2025.
