Great review of all-Asian FALSETTOLAND

[bk2china2chi]

Posted: 6/20/07 at 11:46am

At only $20 a ticket, this might be the best theater deal in the city! an all star cast, a great show, and fantastic notices. Found this review below and wanted to share it with you all. it's only a limitted run, so go see it!

Falsettoland

VENUE
Vineyard Theatre

OPENED
June 17, 2007

CLOSES
July 1, 2007

PERFORMANCES
Tue - Sun at 7pm; Sat & Sun at 3pm
RUNNING TIME
1 hour, 30 minutes
No intermission

TICKETS
$20

212-279-4200
ORDER TICKETS

MORE INFO
Visit the company's official website

CAST
MaryAnn Hu("Miss Saigon")
Christine Toy Johnson("The Music Man")
Francis Jue ("Pacific Overtures," "Thoroughly Modern Millie")
Jason Ma("Sly Fox," "Miss Saigon")
Manu Narayan("Bombay Dreams," "SubUrbia")
Ann Sanders ("Avenue Q," "Beauty and the Beast")
Ben Wu

MUSIC & LYRICS
William Finn

BOOK
James Lapine & William Finn

DIRECTOR
Alan Muraoka

SETS
Sarah Lambert

LIGHTING
Stephen Petrilli

COSTUMES
Ron Glow

MUSIC DIRECTOR
W. Brent Sawyer

STAGE MANAGER
Bruce Alan Johnson

PRODUCING COMPANY
National Asian American Theatre Company

National Asian American Theatre Company revives their excellent production of William Finn & James Lapine's one-act musical, Falsettoland. The show is about a gay man trying to cope with his ex-wife's new husband (who is his ex-therapist), his son's impending bar mitzvah, and the sudden sickness of his lover. This revival is presented as part of the National Asian American Theatre Festival.

Pictured: Jason Ma and Manu Narayan in a scene from Falsettoland (photo © Bruce Alan Johnson)
nytheatre.com review
Martin Denton · June 17, 2007

National Asian American Theatre Company's revival of William Finn & James Lapine's musical Falsettoland is a triumph in every way. This show—so groundbreaking when it was seen on Broadway 15 years ago—still has the ability to pack a significant emotional wallop. This production, elegantly directed by Alan Muraoka with superb music direction by W. Brent Sawyer, reminds us that times of crisis can bring out the very best in people, pulling them together to provide unconditional support and love.

The story, which is a sequel to Finn's March of the Falsettos, concerns Marvin, who left his wife Trina and son Jason for a man, Whizzer; Marvin and Whizzer subsequently broke up and as Falsettoland begins, he is living alone, very focused (as is Trina) on Jason's upcoming bar mitzvah. (Trina has re-married, to Marvin's former psychiatrist, Mendel.)

At one of Jason's baseball games, Marvin and Whizzer reunite and, finding the old spark still very much alive, they get back together. But it's not long before Whizzer starts to show signs of a mysterious illness (the show is set in the early 1980s) that we can identify as AIDS. "Something very bad is happening," sings Marvin's neighbor, a doctor named Charlotte, "Something that kills / Something contagious / Something that spreads from one man to another."

Whizzer's disease brings perspective to the denizens of Falsettoland: Marvin's squabbles with Trina over the bar mitzvah arrangements suddenly seem unimportant. Finally, the show is more about the strengthening of a makeshift, unorthodox family unit than it is about the tragic end of a romance. Trina, who really is our guide into this show, as well as its conscience, tells us "I'm trying to keep sane as the rules keep changing / Families aren't what they were." Her song continues

I hold to the ground as the ground keeps shifting
Keeping my balance square
Trying not to care about this man who Marvin loves
But that's my life
He shared my life
Yes that's my life

The final scenes of the show, brilliantly staged by Muraoka (who solves a problem with the ending that Finn and Lapine never managed in the original), remind us that acceptance and compassion are paramount in coping with a world that keeps shifting under our feet.

NAATCO has brought together an outstanding ensemble, led by Jason Ma's heartfelt and beautifully sung Marvin. Francis Jue is likably avuncular as Mendel, while Christine Toy Johnson and MaryAnn Hu are fine as Dr. Charlotte and her kosher-caterer partner, Cordelia. 13-year-old Ben Wu is perfectly unaffected and real as Jason. But the standouts here are Manu Narayan, as a sexy, frisky, warm-hearted Whizzer, and Ann Sanders as Trina, whose smart, compassionate performance moves her character from the story's sidelines firmly to its emotional center.

Scenic elements by Sarah Lambert are simple but enormously effective (they consist, mostly, of seven chairs, each one upholstered in one of the colors of the gay pride rainbow flag); costumes (Ron Glow) and lighting (Stephen Petrilli) also serve the production splendidly.

Falsettoland is about taking care of each other in troubling times, and NAATCO's revival ups the ante by reminding us that "each other" really means everybody: seven actors of Asian descent play seven neurotic urban Jews without comment and it's neither jarring nor politically pointed. Mendel sings at the show's end: "Homosexuals / Women with children / Short insomniacs / We're a teeny tiny band." This production stands as tribute to the notion that we're all in this together.
http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/fals5332.htm

[Tirso de Molina]

Posted: 6/20/07 at 11:53pm

I want to second this recommendation; I went down to the Dimson/Vineyard tonight to see FALSETTOLAND, and it's a wonderful, heartbreaking production -- as close to perfect a realization of the show as I can imagine. Some of the actors are veterans of director Alan Muraoka's 1998 production and some are new to their roles, but there is not a weak link in this cast. Muraoka and his actors had the audience in tears well before the finale.

Do not miss this show!

[hushpuppy]

Posted: 6/21/07 at 6:51pm

Add me to the list of people who were knocked out by this show. If you're not awash in tears by the final scene, you have no heart. Even the big, 250lb guy next to me (seated next to his wife) was wiping his eyes

[Kringas]

Posted: 6/21/07 at 7:57pm

I'm surprised no one has suggested that it's only fair that someone produce an all-white Flower Drum Song, but I guess only the suggestion of all-black shows create such hysteria.

Updated On: 6/21/07 at 07:57 PM

[The Goat]

Posted: 6/21/07 at 10:05pm

Thanks for the heads-up on this show. Two friends and I are going to see the "Xanadu" matinee on July 1st, so I decided to surprise them and treat us all to "Falsettoland" in the evening (thank goodness for those off-Broadway Sunday evening shows). I am now looking forward to a very "gay" Sunday.