As the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising brings the state of LGBTQ+ rights in America to the forefront of the national conversation, Princeton Summer Theater will open its 2019 Season June 20 with William Finn and James Lapine’s “Falsettos,” directed by PST Artistic Director Daniel Krane.
A reworking of two earlier one-act musicals by Finn, “Falsettos” begins a decade after Stonewall, during the heyday of chaise-lounge therapy and “banana-carrot surprise.”
The first act, set in 1979 and written in 1981, chronicles the shifts in family dynamics that arise after New Yorker Marvin (Michael Rosas), leaves his wife Trina (Bridget McNiff) for another man (Whizzer, played by Dylan Blau Edelstein).
The breezy turmoil develops into something darker in the second act, written in 1991, which skips forward two years and finds the play’s characters unwittingly facing the beginnings of the 1980s AIDS crisis.
Because its two acts were written a decade apart, “Falsettos” uniquely captures the epidemic’s sudden and devastating spread while remaining true to its charming, flawed, and compassionately-drawn cast of characters.
Falsettos will run Thursdays through Sundays June 20 to 30 at the Hamilton Murray Theater. For tickets and information, visit
princetonsummertheater.org, call 732-997-0205, or email
box@princetonsummertheater.org.
