Falsettos

### Instrumentalists

Ayla Foster (guitar, drums), Caleb Banning (clarinet, flute), Connor Banning (cello), Lia de Wit (piano)

Falsettos is one of the Broadway musicals that FarawayBroadway has done covers of. In July 2020, the group put on a limited run of the full musical in a small Los Angeles theater.

## Covers

1. Four Jews in a Room Bitching
2. A Tight-Knit Family/Love Is Blind
3. The Thrill of First Love
4. Marvin at the Psychiatrist
5. My Father's a Homo/Everyone Tells Jason to See a Psychiatrist
6. This Had Better Come to a Stop
7. I'm Breaking Down
8. Please Come to Our House/Jason's Therapy
9. A Marriage Proposal/A Tight-Knit Family (Reprise)
10. Trina's Song/March of the Falsettos/Trina's Song (Reprise)
11. The Chess Game + Making a Home + The Games I Play
12. Marvin Hits Trina + I Never Wanted to Love You
13. Father to Son
14. Falsettoland/About Time
15. The Miracle of Judaism + The Baseball Game
16. A Day In Falsettoland
17. Everyone Hates His Parents
18. What More Can I Say?
19. Something Bad is Happening/More Racquetball
20. Holding to the Ground
21. Days Like This
22. Unlikely Lovers
23. Another Miracle of Judaism
24. You Gotta Die Sometime
25. Jason's Bar Mitzvah
26. What Would I Do? + Falsettoland (Reprise)

## Live Performances

Introduced on the FarawayBroadway by way of a series of Behind-the-Scenes videos detailing the process of getting this amateur production to the stage.

Directed by Juniper Cannon. Played through July 21 - 25 2020 with a matinee on Saturday.

Orchestra includes:

* Raven Page - guitar
* Caleb Banning - piano, clarinet, flute
* Connor Banning - cello
* Evan Koh - drums, percussion

### Juniper's Director's Note

*My first exposure to William Finn's Falsettos was in 1992, with a personal performance in my kitchen. For weeks on end, my mom sang these beautiful songs, but I had no idea where she was getting them from. She was humming one which I now know was "Holding to the Ground" when I finally decided I would end my frustration.*

*"Momma, what song is that?"*

*The glimmer in her eyes could've been their own beautiful song.*

*The next week, she bought us tickets to Falsettos. Funnily enough, she never did explain what the musical was about, so when she dragged me into the car, I was going in completely blind. You'd think I'd've learned my lesson from the last time I asked her a question, right? Well, apparently not.*

*"Why is this so important, momma?"*

*After a long moment: "Something very bad happened the year before you were born." [indirect spoiler warning!]*

*She told me one of her best friends got very, very sick. He went into the hospital terrified and looking for answers, but none of the doctors had any idea what was happening. Research wasn't being funded, politicians were avoiding any talk about this "crisis", and all the while, hundreds of men like my mother's friend were dying. And so, my mother joined a group of young women in visiting these men. So often they were alone in those rooms with no family or friends who wanted to see them, and my mother hated the thought. She'd bring them food she made, books, magazines, even games she'd sit and play with them.*

*At this point in the conversation, my mom was getting very emotional and I, being ten years old, was getting very confused. I was familiar with the whole concept of death, but I didn't know what her story had to do with this musical. Again, she told me nothing about Falsettos, just bought the tickets and shoved me in the car.*

*Boy was I about to find out the hard way.*

*The first act was great! I adored Jason, thought Jonathan Kaplan was cute, fell in love with Whizzer's character (uh-oh), and really enjoyed all of the music.*

*And then... Act Two.*

*My mom and I both walked out of the John Golden bawling like children lost in the Mall of America, and suddenly I had a better understanding of my mother. I could imagine the terror those men might've been feeling, especially if they were all alone.*

*From that moment on, I was hooked. I saved up my allowance and bought my own copy of the Falsettos CD, every merch item in existence, and when I heard a revival was in the works with two of my best friends as Marvin and Whizzer... Man, you don't wanna get me started on how much that production changed our lives.*

*My mom passed away in late 2016, but before she laid in her hospital bed for the last time, she charmed her doctor into letting her see the revival on opening night. So we went! I wheeled her, her IV, and oxygen machine into the front row, closely trailed by a nurse who wasn't at all ready for what she was being subjected to. All of the emotions we felt on that night in 1992 flooded back, heightened by the love and fear I held for my dying mother beside me.*

*So much of that night and the months prior is too personally significant to explain here, but all you should know is that my mom was the happiest she'd ever been. It was a breath of fresh air to see her smile.*

*This show is so important to me. I connected with my mom on a level unknown to me up til then, and I came to an understanding of the world and the potential for love and kindness within it. I learned that you can find your family in the most unlikely of places, which I have seriously taken to heart.*

*Thank you for coming to this amateur, dream-fulfillment production of Falsettos, my friends. I hope this story impacts you as much as it has me.*