“Once in a great while I experience that moment of Revelation for which all true believers wait and pray.” — Addison DeWitt, All About Eve
Encountering an undeniably unique voice writing for the musical theatre is one of the rarest joys a theatregoer can experience. It’s so rare, in fact, that the occasion can lodge in the memory like a cognitive gift. Case in point: That 1981 moment I lowered the arm of my Bar Mitzvah-gift-record player (remember those?) and first heard those percussive opening bars of March of the Falsettos. What was this?!? This wasn’t Rodgers & Hammerstein or Cy Coleman. This wasn’t even Stephen Sondheim. This was something altogether unfamiliar, unmistakably contemporary, gloriously neurotic and utterly compelling. This was a score that took risks, luxuriated in its own peculiarity and didn’t care if it was always making sense. This was William Finn and I was besotted.
From that day forward the arrival of a new score by William Finn was an event. I caught up on the delectably odd In Trousers (which had opened two years earlier). Next came America Kicks up its Heels (which later became Romance in Hard Times), an unforgettable musical that never quite found its way. Finn then returned to his …Falsettos characters, creating a hilarious and heartbreaking third chapter, 1990’s Falsettoland. Two years later, Finn and his longtime collaborator James Lapine combined March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland creating 1992’s Falsettos. This deeply moving Broadway production won him two overdue Tony Awards for score and book (the latter shared with Lapine). In ’98, inspired by a near-death experience, Finn opened A New Brain, an unabashedly autobiographical piece (that significantly evolved in its 2015 revision for the Encores series.) Finn plumbed even deeper depths of musical sophistication with his 2003 song cycle Elegies, a brilliant collection of eulogiums written to memorialize his friends, teachers, colleagues and family members who had passed on. His final Broadway production was his most perfect combination of the strange and accessible; The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee which features a Tony-winning book by Rachel Sheinkin and has been lovingly revived at New World Stages after being developed at the (currently comatose) Kennedy Center.
The new production of …Spelling Bee is one of the most flat-out entertaining musicals to open this season. It’s certainly the funniest. Director/choreographer Danny Mefford has taken his cue from Lapine’s pitch-perfect original staging and breathes new life into this endlessly charming show. He’s assembled a wonderful cast who, if they don’t quite reach the stratosphere of their predecessors, they come very, very close. I was especially captivated by Justin Cooley’s beautifully vulnerable Leaf Coneybear (after his work in Kimberly Akimbo, I’m not sure this young man is capable of a dishonest moment). Jasmine Amy Rogers is also on a roll after a stunning debut as the title character of last season’s Boop. Her deeply affecting Olive Ostrovsky represents the heart of the piece, and her “I Love You Song” is the emotional climax of this production. I must also single out Philippe Arroyo’s sharply etched Chip Tolentino, finding a graceful mix of “alpha male” bravado and anguish over his unforgettable humiliation. The designers all do excellent work (scenery by Teresa L. Williams, costumes by Emily Rebholz and Lights by David Weiner). Woe to those who fail to make it to this …Bee. It’s 100 minutes of pure musical comedy joy.
As if …Spelling Bee weren’t enough of a Finn-fest for one week, I was also lucky enough to catch one of the two readings of his final musical at 54 Below, entitled Once Every Hundred Years. With terrific music by Danny Ursetti and typically exceptional lyrics by Finn, the song cycle explores Finn’s experience (personal and vicarious) of surviving the pandemic. The whip smart songs explore the challenges of our struggling through those extraordinary times via a (mostly) comic prism. We are treated to another hilarious Finn Bar Mitzvah, his use of “Sudoku” as a coping mechanism, the mordantly funny “My Girlfriend’s Dog”, a touching tribute (Elegies-style) to actor Michael Mandell, and the beautiful lyricism of the title song. But really, all the songs in this gem of a show are winners. It’s been a long time since I’ve emerged from a new musical feeling frustrated that I’d have to wait for the recording to come out. I’m very happy to report that the show was recorded live (featuring soulful performances by Jeff Blumenkrantz, Demond Green and Zachary Noah Piser) and will be commercially available. Soon, I hope!
But truth to tell, I was sort of grateful for that bit of frustration. It made the deep melancholy I was feeling at the curtain call a little bit easier to manage. Knowing it would be the last new William Finn score I’d ever get to hear was deeply bittersweet for me, but kudos to Lauren Kahane (producer), Joe Calarco (direction), Benji Goldsmith (musical direction) and the redoubtable, long-time Finn collaborator Michael Starobin (orchestrations) for making it all possible. We have to cherish (and continually keep producing!) the oeuvre of this titan of musical theatre. A singular talent lost to us too soon, but how lucky we are to have lived when he did. An unapologetically eccentric genius whose brilliance embodied the value of being wholly and authentically oneself.
Hey,
Just saying our goodbyes/
The living was the prize/
The ending’s not the story. Goodbye…
(From Elegies, a song cycle)
