Review: 54 SINGS IN TROUSERS Brought a Rare Gem to 54 Below

Before last Tuesday night, I had only heard In Trousers, the first installation in William Finn’s beloved Marvin trilogy, exactly once, when my father dug up the record for me. Did I know there was a musical before March of the Falsettos, and did I want to hear it? Yes, absolutely.

The 54 Sings in Trousers concert at 54 Below on March 12th had the same sense of anticipation and delight I felt listening to that record and hearing the story that comes before Falsettos (the two-act musical comprised of March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland, installations two and three of the Marvin trilogy respectively). Marvin opens March with a quick sum up of everything that happened in In Trousers: “Well, the situation's this / It’s not tough to comprehend / I divorced my wife, I left my child / And I ran off with a friend.”

However, that non-linear, impressionistic work can’t be summed up in a single sentence, and to skip over it entirely would be a tragedy. While there’s no doubt that March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland might be, technically speaking, better musicals on the whole, with more character development, plot, and character-driven songs, the bouncy score to In Trousers is a gem on its own. The 54 Below cast did it justice, singing through the entire score with 20 vocalists playing a rotating cast of the show’s four characters (Marvin, his wife, his high school girlfriend, and his teacher Miss Goldberg), each singing wonderfully. The five Marvins emphasized different aspects of the character, with Zach Faust playing “Whizzer Going Down” for laughs, and Amron Salgado zanily playing his brazen, joyful selfishness on “How Marvin Eats His Breakfast.” The five Trinas played her character at various points. Sara Matin sang one of the early wife songs, wine glass in hand, singing about the desperation of her situation, being married to a man she suspects of cheating on her and not being attracted to her. Grace Kelly Kretzmer sang “Love Me for What I Am,” a tender ballad remembering the couple’s early courtship and how Trina fell in love with Marvin. Dara Weinstein brought the house down with “I’m Breaking Down,” which was interpolated into Falsettos, the apex of Trina’s meltdown when she learns the truth about Marvin.

The evening was produced by Dara Weinstein and Grace Kelly Kretzmer and featured performances by Andie Angel, Nina Bogosian, David Carver, Christopher Conte, Nicole Donato, Zach Faust, Nova Gomez, Clair Rachel Howell, Ciara Huckeby, Skylar Jeffries, Zoey Johnson, Mike Jubak, Jr., Grace Kelly Kretzmer, Sara Matin, Kaylee Michael, Grace Peknic, Julia Rhea, Amron Salgado, Dara Weinstein and Stella Wunder.

They were accompanied by Hannah Lee on reeds, Ashley Grace Ryan on piano, Tim Schneider on percussion, Miles Spearman on trumpet, and Joseph Thor on synth.

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