Theatre review: Falsettos

Another week, another show gets embroiled in controversy - in the case of Falsettos it's over whether the long-delayed (27 years) UK premiere of William Finn (music and lyrics) and James Lapine's (book) musical engaged meaningfully with the Jewish community during the rehearsal process. Tara Overfield-Wilkinson's production has no Jewish cast or creatives, and when a show opens with a number called "Four Jews in a Room Bitching" (as well as later featuring a major plotline about a bar mitzvah, and a whole song about the cliché that Jews are bad at sports) it does seem mind-blowing to me that nobody considered at the very least having someone in the room in a consultancy role for some scenes, just to make sure the show's brash, cartoonish style didn't tip over into something insensitive.

Then there's the fact that most of Finn and Lapine's characters are deeply unlikeable people; fortunately the production avoids implying the unpleasantness and the Jewishness are connected, but even so you do wonder at what point, going over the material, people might consider whether this was their story to tell - just because someone makes a joke at their own expense doesn't automatically mean it's OK to repeat it.

If only the end result was remotely worth the fuss going on in the background. In the late '70s Marvin (Daniel Boys) leaves his wife Trina (Laura Pitt-Pulford) and son Jason (James Williams, alternating with Albert Atack, George Kennedy and Elliot Morris,) for a man, Whizzer (Oliver Savile.) He does want to keep close ties with his family though, not because he shows any sign of liking them, but because It's The Right Thing To Do^TM. He also doesn't seem to remotely like Whizzer either, but that seems to be by the bye. Incidentally no, there's no explanation for why he's called Whizzer, so I have to assume it's because he's into watersports. He does wear a lot of yellow shirts so maybe designer PJ McEvoy is doing some coding there. Also, apparently medical ethics hadn't been invented in the '70s because Marvin's therapist Mendel (understudy Matthew McKenna) ends up not only agreeing to treat his patient's ex-wife and son, but also goes on to marry Trina.

The frenetic tone of the opening number (is... is it part of the story that Marvin proposed to Trina by telling her about the many STIs he had, and had probably already passed on to her?) is maintained relentlessly for the first act, meaning it's a full-on hour of people panicking and screaming at each other. Marvin in particular is astonishingly dislikeable (after they break up Whizzer straight-up calls him psychotic, but still gets back with him for reasons of ???????????) It's ironic that in a show named after a high singing voice, the best word I can think of to describe the tone is "shrill." It's a trap American drama seems to fall into very easily: Yes, you need flawed characters and conflict to have any kind of drama, but sometimes it tips over into making the audience look at unpleasant people screeching at each other for two hours, and asking them to give a shit. Things marginally calm down by the second act, but by this point it's too late. This may be why the underwritten lesbian couple of Charlotte (Gemma Knight-Jones) and Cordelia (Natasha J Barnes) now materialise out of nowhere, to have someone on stage you don't want to punch.

The story's now moved into the '80s, so while the foreground is the preparations for Jason's bar mitzvah (which means, after a short truce, everyone can recommence the screeching, OH GOD SO MUCH SCREECHING,) it's obvious what's looming in the background in a story with gay leads. Premiering in 1992, Falsettos was one of the first shows to deal with AIDS so can be forgiven for doing so a bit clumsily, but even so Whizzer succumbing feels like a cheap attempt at unearned emotion and not particularly respectful of the real victims - especially as his serene death, surrounded by friends and family, is a complete fantasy. This is, after all, very clearly presented as the very early days of the epidemic when people didn't know how it spread, and in reality this would have been an ugly, lonely death - even Charlotte, his actual doctor, regularly going into his hospital room without a full hazmat suit would have been considered a downright saintly sacrifice. Perhaps this is actually intended by Finn and Lapine to be a happy fantasy of the way those men's lives should have ended, but a final-act twist in a hitherto loud and garish musical is a hard way to establish that if so.

I'm trying to come up with something positive to say about Falsettos (I mean, the performances are great, if you ignore every word they say and how they say it) and I'm mainly coming up with the fact that each act is actually five minutes shorter than advertised, which never happens. Given I never connected with any of the music or characters I doubt there's a version of this musical that would really be for me, but if so Overfield-Wilkinson's heavy-handed production clearly isn't it.

Falsettos by William Finn and James Lapine is booking until the 23rd of November at The Other Palace.

Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: The Standout Company.