A New Brain

William Finn’s 1998 semi-autobiographical musical has been called shapeless and “spliced-together.” It wasn’t till late in rehearsal for a production that I drew a structural connection to Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. 

Gordon hates his life and is haunted by visions of his spiteful employer (a Jacob Marley-esque cautionary tale). In the hospital he is visited by his complicated mother (Christmas Past) and his almost-perfect partner (Christmas Present). Gordon rails against his loved ones and throws his lover out of his hospital room (Scrooge’s break-up with Belle). When surgery puts him in a coma he sees them grieving his death (Christmas Future).

At first I thought Gordon’s recovery was the climax of the show. The scenes afterwards felt unnecessary. The Christmas Carol lens makes Gordon’s post-surgery reconciliations and the syrupy “I Feel So Much Spring” important steps towards rebuilding the life he almost lost. 

Falsettos

William Finn wrote three short musicals about the bisexual Marvin and his family (In Trousers, March of the Falsettos, Falsettoland), before combining the latter two into the full length Falsettos. While the AIDS crisis had been addressed on stage Falsettos was the first musical to deal with the topic, two years before Rent.

The Broadway production was nominated for 7 Tony Awards. It won best book and best score but lost best musical to the fizzy Gershwin scored Crazy for You. In Peter Filichia's novel Strippers, Showgirls, and Sharks: A Very Opinionated History of the Broadway Musicals That Did Not Win the Tony Award he suggests that it was the adultery, rather than the homosexuality, that upset the Tony voters. The monogamous gay couple in La Cage Aux Folles won best musical in 1984 but Marvin leaves his wife in Falsettos and nobody is punished. In Crazy For You boy leaves upper class girlfriend for cowgirl but no one felt threatened by that.

Falsettos on the Tony Awards.
Scott Miller's Analysis of March of the Falsettos.
Background reading.