By Leslie Marin

Now you can’t beat a show that opens with the number “Four Jews in a Room Bitching” and continues with “My Father’s a Homo (My Mother’s Not Thrilled at All).” You just can’t. Don’t get me wrong, Falsettos isn’t all laughs…you’ll find yourself tearing up as often as you will giggling, but still…

Let me give you a little background on this musical (the entire show is sung ~ there’s very little spoken word) that started its life as two completely separate works ~ born eight years apart. March of the Falsettos, the original “half” (here’s a little bit of theatre trivia ~ there was actually an even earlier play, In Trousers, that is part of what’s often referred to as The Marvin Trilogy ~ after Falsettos’ lead character ~ but it was not absorbed into the final show), opened at the Playwrights Horizons in 1981 and was considered revolutionary and given credit by many for reshaping musical theatre. William Finn (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) was inspired by March and in 1989 wrote Falsettoland, which opened in 1990 at the same theatre. Then, in 1992, the two works were combined into the show that’s getting ready to open at Foothills in just a couple of weeks.

Alright, now that you know where the show came from, it’s time to fill you in on what it’s about ~ and as the saying goes, hang on, it’s going to be a bumpy ride! The show, set in 1979, opens with Marvin having left his wife Trina and 11 1/2 year old son Jason for a younger man (wait, before you jump to conclusions, Falsettos is NOT about two gay men living happily ever after), Whizzer. Trina is not happy about all this (hence the “…my Mother’s Not Thrilled at All”) and Marvin suggests that she make an appointment with his shrink, Mendel. Going completely against all professional ethics, Mendel immediately gets a boner for Trina and begins his pursuit of her; the two are soon married, a move that doesn’t go over too well with either Marvin or young Jason. Concerned that they can’t adequately answer their son’s questions about what his father’s sexuality means in terms of his own future ~ Jason wonders if he too will grow up to be gay ~ Marvin and Trina suggest that he turn to Mendel for advice.

Throughout these Act I romantic and familial arrangements and rearrangements, we are privy to glances of Marvin and Whizzer’s relationship. The two men seem to love nothing more than fighting, competing (chess is their “weapon of choice” in Act I), and showing each other up. There’s so much conflict, in fact, that Act I ends with their break-up ~ and with Marvin finding himself alone and having to do some serious soul-searching.

When you come back from intermission, you’ll have jumped ahead to 1981. Jason is now 12 1/2 and preparing for his bar mitzvah. Marvin and Trina have reached a truce and decided to focus all their efforts on the big event ~ and of course they disagree about everything and have managed to alienate Jason with their bickering and by not asking him his opinion about anything.

Following all this family fragmentation so far?

Time to throw into the mix two lesbian friends of Marvin’s ~ one’s a doctor and one’s a caterer, and the latter has become obsessed with experimenting with kosher food for the bar mitzvah. Re-enter Whizzer. Since their break-up, both he and Marvin have missed each other terribly ~ so they realize they are happier as a couple and get back together, a move that has Trina saying a big “Oye” ~ but that also has them back competing (although against the backdrop of a more loving relationship this time ‘round), this time with racquetball as their chosen forum…until Whizzer collapses on the court and is rushed to the hospital, where the rest of the show takes place and where Whizzer’s doctor is heard to predict, “Something bad is happening” (remember the decade in which Falsettos is set).

Whereas Act 1 saw a family unit fracturing and the disparate parts drifting further and further apart, Act II finds the very same individuals rallying together and discovering what really matters, what the term “family” truly means, and that we all have two choices when life throws the unexpected ~ and sometimes the unpleasant ~ at us: we can either give up or come together to support each other.

Falsettos does an excellent job of doing just what a show should do ~ elicit a reaction from its audience and make it so that by the end of the performance, each and every one is invested in the characters they’ve been watching on stage. There is not a heavy-handed moment in the show nor does the plot ever go exactly where we think it’s headed. William Finn is a master of imbuing serious scenes with just the right amount of levity and downright hilarious scenes with the perfect amount of thought-provoking subject matter.

See the show. And see it with friends or family, because you’re going to want to talk about it afterwards.

Falsettos plays at Foothills Theatre Company May 10 to June 1. Head to foothillstheatre.com for more information and to order tickets.

Photo: Cast members Chip Phillips, Beverly Ward, & Wil Darcangelo