If you’re unfamiliar with “Falsettos,” the SIU School of Theater and Dance doesn’t hesitate to integrate you into William Finn and James Lapine’s story of faith, love and family, set at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. Performed in the intimate black box Moe Theater, the opening number is no once-upon-a-time-esque feat. Instead, audiences are immediately greeted by “Four Jews in a Room B—-ing.”
SIU’s hilarious yet heartbreaking season opener, directed by professor Darryl Clark, follows the chaos of an unconventional Jewish-American family living in New York City between 1979-81. Marvin (senior Van Leonard) is a neurotic father who leaves his wife, Trina (senior Edie Balester), for his lover, Whizzer (junior Nick Steinberger). While tensions build between Marvin and his son, Jason (sixth-grader Harrison Zimmermann), Trina falls in love with Marvin’s psychiatrist, Mendel (junior Demaurion Clark).
Over time, Whizzer leaves Marvin, but they reunite two years later, on the brink of Jason’s bar mitzvah, just as AIDS is beginning to spread. With the addition of their neighbors, lovers Charlotte (junior Ameriah Lockett) and Cordelia (senior Bizi Cutherell), a loving extended family begins to form, and the characters learn to face their futures with love and dignity.
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It’s a sung-through musical — meaning no spoken dialogue — that fuses two separate one-act shows by Finn. Each act has its own main resolution, which is a blessing and a curse. The stories are emotionally complex, but the pacing can be confusing at times, especially as the show transitions from Act 1 to Act 2. And yet, at a dress rehearsal where technical kinks are still being worked out, the cast — who had just four weeks to prepare — shines through.
Balester and Demaurion Clark are phenomenal as Trina and Mendel, and their vocals blend nicely to create some of the show’s more memorable moments. Lockett proves her range as Charlotte — a role on an entirely different wavelength than last year’s Grover in “The Lightning Thief” — and Cutherell earnestly plays the one non-Jewish character in an endearing fashion. Leonard and Steinberger provide comedic relief while remaining the heart and soul of the show. Even freshman Eden Kaszubski, who has a quick quip as one of Mendel’s patients, stands out during her short stage time.
But the glue of the family is Jason — Marvin and Trina’s 10-going-on-12-year-old son. Jason is precocious, and his journey with his parents’ divorce is a central focus in the show, as well as his developing relationships with his other parental figures. An unlikely highlight of the show is his bond with Mendel. Despite Mendel violating nearly every ethic in the psychiatry book, he becomes a steady presence in Jason’s life, and Clark and Harrison are a fun duo to watch.
Also, it would be remiss to not mention Harrison’s talent. At just 11 years old, he plays Jason with a fierce tenacity — throughout the dress rehearsal, he never stops going, even when scenes get rough, nailing nearly every line with emotion and power.
But perhaps the biggest highlight of the show is the set. Designed by Hayden Bingham, it begins with a glow-in-the-dark curtain that opens to reveal a kitchen, a hallway and a living room. There are sliding doors with windows for when a room needs shut. The set manages to separate Whizzer from the family during certain scenes, but also brings them together for later ones. With props and lighting, the downstage area is versatile: It serves as a psychiatry office, tennis court and baseball field.
Additionally, audiences become one with the set. The flexible theater holds space for just about 100 spectators, which director Darryl Clark says was the plan all along. The intimacy of the show required a smaller setting to bring audiences into the home life of the characters.
“I wanted the audience to be right there in the thick of things with everybody else on the stage,” Clark said. “I didn’t want them to be with the orchestra pit between them and all those seats around them — I wanted them to be very intimately involved with these characters.”
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Leonard, who plays the lead, said adjusting to the setup, which features audience members sitting at three different angles, was challenging as an actor but fitting for the musical.
“It’s an intimate show about intimate lives,” he said. “When you boil it down, it’s just about the chaos that relationships have. And so that’s a very intimate concept and thing, so it deserves an intimate space.”
The McLeod Theater, where season openers are usually performed, is currently being prepped for major renovations. In that setting, audiences usually wouldn’t pay attention to the floor (the angle of most seats wouldn’t allow you to) but it’s something viewers should be on the lookout for during “Falsettos.” Jaemin Park’s lighting design is instrumental in transforming the space. Patterns, shadows and colors shape the narrative of the show, as do Aleka Fischer’s costumes. The styles and colors of the clothes change as the characters enter a new decade.
Finn’s score is unique in its own charming way. Under the direction of Angela Schultz, the upbeat songs will keep your foot tapping, while the slower numbers tug at your heartstrings. The cast puts a smile on your face during “The Baseball Game” and cuts to the core during “Unlikely Lovers.” A standout number is Act 1’s “I’m Breaking Down,” performed cathartically by Balester as Trina.
The tone of “Falsettos” significantly alters in Act 2, however, when Whizzer comes down with a mysterious illness. It’s 1981 and the AIDS epidemic is just beginning. Dr. Charlotte sings about young bachelors coming in sick and leaving with more questions than answers.
“It was like the early days of COVID where they just said, ‘Go home and stay home,’ and you didn’t know why, and what you didn’t have (was) like, this electronic information going through the air, spreading what could help you or what couldn’t help you,” director Clark said. “It just was a whole big mystery. It was a huge city grabbed in this mystery, and then you had the leader of this country turning his back on it. So it was almost identical to COVID.”
Clark said he wanted to highlight these parallels, but also their differences.
“That was one thing that I wanted to try to identify because it’s (‘Falsettos’) not in a place where now you have all these things that can keep people safer when they’re having sex and you have practices that keep people safe and all this other stuff that wasn’t there,” he said.
The musical also pays homage to lesbian solidarity during the AIDS epidemic. When doctors and scientists refused to care for HIV/AIDS patients, lesbians volunteered to provide medical care. Patients were often anemic and needed blood transfusions, but in 1983, men who had sex with men were banned from donating blood, leading to a shortage. In response, lesbians held blood drives and collaborated with blood banks to ensure the donations went directly to HIV/AIDS patients.
Lockett, who plays Dr. Charlotte, pointed out that the script never mentions the lesbians’ names.
“I think that they’re just kind of there as kind of an image of the allies that lesbians were during the time of the AIDS crisis,” she said. “Like they’re not named, but they’re still there. They’re still on the frontlines with gay men and everybody going through this … It’s not directly affecting their community, but they’re still here feeling it with everybody.”
Clark said he hopes that this performance inspires audiences to live authentically.
“We had the idea of this man (Marvin) who turned his back on everything that was supposed to be right in his life and tried to live his truth, and living his truth was like being like a moth to the flame and kind of scorched him, as we see. And it makes his family fall into this horrible state of disrepair and it doesn’t do anything for its relationship either, but at least he tries.
“So I think that’s the thing. It’s like, dare yourself to live your truth, no matter how painful it may be, because once you’ve done that, it’s like you come out on the other side of it, probably a much stronger, much better person.”
“Falsettos” runs in the Moe Theater at SIU Communications Building from Oct. 15-18 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 19 at 2 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online, by phone at 618-453-5714 or at the McLeod Theater Box Office, which is open Monday through Friday from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. and one hour before each performance.
Deputy editor Carly Gist can be reached at [email protected], or on Instagram at @gistofthestory. Photo editor Dominique Martinez-Powell can be reached at [email protected], or on Instagram at @d.martinezphoto.
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