Curly Hair, What's in There? : Falsettos

You all know how much I love musicals. Like, a lot. One of my favourite musicals of all time is Falsettos, and I was lucky enough to get to see the London production this week. This is my review (prepare for a lot of excitement).

Curly Hair, What's in There? : Falsettos

For those that don't know: Falsettos is a composite of stories written in 1979-1990 by William Finn and James Lapine. It starts in 1979 and follows Marvin, a gay man who leaves his wife Trina and their son Jason, for his lover Whizzer. It explores these complex relationships, partly through Marvin's psychiatrist, Mendel, who goes on to fall in love with Trina. Act two skips to 1981, and deals with the organisation of Jason's bar mitzvah, as well as the AIDS crisis, and introduces the 'lesbians from next door'. It's an incredible show as it's hilarious but also heartbreaking and sweet as anything. Now that the plot is done, let me go into detail of what I loved (all of it).

I've listened to the recording of the 2016 Broadway revival more times than I could possibly count, and I know every single word and nuance of that cast's performance. I have also watched the Lincoln centre film of this show multiple times, and I love it. That being said, this London production blew me out of the water. It was slightly different, as revivals with different direction always are, but I loved the differences it made. 

First off, the Lincoln center production was very minimalistic in terms of set, since it was fairly quickly put together. This version had a beautiful set:

Also how good are our seats

The picture frames were used so well, with characters standing in them in particular scenes, which was very effective. The digital frames were used to set up the location, which was awesome because we had different wallpaper and features for the different interiors. The fact that the stage is checkered is super cool, since one of the recurring themes is chess, and in The Chess Game, which is more of a metaphorical exploration of Whizzer and Marvin's relationship, Whizzer even makes a reference to the fact that they are literally standing on a chess board. I loved this feature, it somehow brought a little something extra to the performance.

Now, the actors. Man, were they amazing. I was a little apprehensive towards how the performances would be, being so used to hearing the incredible voices of the likes of Tony winners Stephanie J. Block and Andrew Rannells, but I was very very pleasantly surprised. The role of Jason was played by Albert Atack, who was absolutely incredible. Jason is a difficult role in my opinion and I couldn't imagine anyone doing better than Anthony Rosenthal (in the Broadway revival) but Albert was unbelievable. I loved the addition of the glasses on the character, which exaggerated Jason's nerdiness and intelligence. It's also an emotional role and Atack nailed it; he was genuinely crying by the end of the show. Watch this kid, he's definitely going places.

We saw an understudy in the role of Marvin, Matthew McKenna, who was also amazing. Marvin is the major character and this actor played the role amazingly well. The actresses who played Charlotte (Gemma Knight-Jones) and Cordelia (Natasha J Barnes), the lesbians-from-next-door, were also fantastic, such amazing voices and moving performances. 

Joel Montague, who played Mendel, was a last minute addition to the cast after the original actor dropped out, and he was absoultely the right choice for the role. He was hilarious, adorable, and altogether gave an excellent performance which I was very very impressed by. We met him after the show and made sure he heard how much we loved him:

Also LOVE the tash, a great choice for the character

We also met Laura Pitt-Pulford, who played Trina, and she was absolutely unbelievably amazing:

Trina has some really iconic songs, and a lot of what she performs is impressive, it's powerful notes and an altogether difficult performance, and Laura absolutely killed it. I genuinely had goosebumps when she sang Holding to the Ground, and her version of I'm Breaking Down had me howling. I never thought I could love a Trina as much as I loved Stephanie J Block, and Laura did it. 

Finally, Oliver Savile, Whizzer, was so so so so good.

It's a really varied role, with funny moments as well as emotional aspects and some really jaw-dropping solos, and Savile was incredible in every part. Whizzer's actor needs to be really capable (see Andrew Rannells) and Oliver Savile really lived up to my expectations. His performance was absolutely astounding, he made me laugh, cry, and just made me so so happy.

Some aspects were different than the Broadway revival, but I didn't care one bit that it wasn't exactly what I'm used to, because that's what revivals are all about- exploring the work and seeing different ways it can be performed. It was an incredible production and it made me fall in love with the show and the characters all over again. I feel extremely priviledged to have seen it and, if possible, I would LOVE to see it again. Thanks to the whole cast, crew and creatives who created such an amazing piece of theatre, I love you all so much!

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