It starts by saying that it’s just “four Jews in a room bitching,” but William Finn’s “March of the Falsettos,” directed by Gianna Sobol ’06, turned out to be so much more.
Last weekend’s show was not only a huge success, but provided an entertaining break from all the late semester work that starts to pile up around this time of year. Music direction was provided by Nick Burleigh ’06 for his senior music project. The show was also chosen by Burleigh, and he conducted the 10-piece orchestra and played piano.
“Nick Burleigh chose the show for his senior music project after his dad suggested it to him and sent out an email looking for a director,” Sobol said. “I have always had this dream of directing musicals, and I happened to be talking about it with some friends the day I got the email. I thought it must have been fate.”
“March of the Falsettos” tells the story of Marvin, his son, ex-wife, psychiatrist, and new gay lover. Marvin (Seth Cohen ’07) leaves his wife for his new lover, Whizzer, played by Quinn Olbrich ’09, but still wants to have a “Tight Knit Family,” one of the hit songs sung throughout the show. He encourages his son, Jason (Emilie Phelps ’07) and wife, Trina (Caitlin Thompson ’06) to go to his psychiatrist, Mendel (Samuel Harrell ’07), who quickly falls in love with Trina.
Despite its opening line, “Falsettos” did not seem to adapt any Jewish stereotypes to attempt to portray the characters as Jews.
“Some say [Finn] needed an easy excuse to explain the characters’ neuroses,” Sobol said. “Some say it’s to set the tone for how in-your-face and relentless the show will be. We added a few touches – a menorah, matzo, a Jewish prayer – into the background of the show, but mostly for our own consistency.”
The show was completely sung and provided a great venue to showcase Cohen’s talent.
“The most difficult part of doing the show was learning the music,” Cohen said. “The entire show was sung, so there were many different types of songs to learn. Also, the rhythms and melodies in the show were fairly complicated, which is one of the reasons why I liked the music so much.”
One thing that made this particular depiction stand out was Sobol’s brave decision to cast Phelps in the role of Jason, Marvin’s ten-year old, depressed son. Phelps played a believable young boy and seemed very comfortable onstage. While the Wesleyan audience may be used to hearing Phelps singing with the Cardinal Sinners, her singing as Jason sounded completely different.
“I basically threw everything out that I know about ‘good’ voice technique for this role,” Phelps said. “Since my character Jason is a 10-year-old boy, I didn’t use vibrato, I let my voice crack, and I made it sound like I was straining for the notes.”
The show-stopping titular song came in the middle of the show. The entire cast appeared wearing small, childlike, brightly-colored hats with propellers on top and sang the entire song in falsetto. The choreography, created by Meredith Steinberg ’07, was completely in sync and incredibly comical.
The entire play, running just over an hour, was a short but sweet break from reality into a world of love, STDs, and psychiatry: all the best parts of college.
Leave a Reply