FALSETTOS at Town Hall Theatre, 3/21-24

When FALSETTOS opened on Broadway in 1992, the theater world knew it was experiencing something brand new in musical theater. Everything about FALSETTOS breaks the mold of the Broadway musical.

The score, with music and lyrics by William Finn, sounds like no other. It works at a breakneck pace, dividing the action into a series of small overlapping scenes, and combines conversational
passages with deeply emotional ballads. The lyrics range from howlingly funny to articulate and moving. Finn was immediately hailed as the first new genius in musical theater since Stephen Sondheim, with whom he is often compared.

The subject of FALSETTOS is also unique to Broadway. It traces the life of Marvin, a New Yorker who leaves his wife and child for the love of another man. Yet he still longs for a tight-knit family. He still believes that, somehow, his confused little extended family can survive.

Marvin's new lover, Whizzer, his son Jason, and his wife Trina try to make some sense of their awkward situation, aided by a wily psychiatrist, Mendel - who cheerfully breaks professional ethics by falling in love with his client Trina. Further complicating the story, and leading to a powerful dramatic finale, is the looming AIDS epidemic.

FALSETTOS will receive four performances, from Thursday March 21 to Sunday, March 24, at Middlebury's Town Hall Theater. Tickets are $20 and may be purchased at www.townhalltheater.org, 802 382-9222, at the THT Box Office (Mon-Sat, Noon-5 pm) or at the door, if available.

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