On an open stage, three men are stomping their feet to the music inside their heads. "Passion and flair and passion and flair..." choreographer Britt Banaszynski, a Communication senior, instructs fittingly charismatic actors Communication junior Zach Sorrow and Communication senior Frankie DiCiaccio in a dance number for Falsettos, the Jewish Theatre Ensemble's winter musical.
The show explores themes of growing up, homosexuality and the Jewish identity. And the story, written by William Finn and originally premiered in 1992 on Broadway, couldn't be more timely in fleshing out these modern matters.
"The show is the story of a group of people, we call them a family," director Ned Baker, a Communication senior, says to set the stage. The storyline centers on the life of Marvin, who, after 11 years of marriage, comes out to his wife, Trina, and son as gay and leaves them for another man, Whizzer. After Marvin leaves his his wife they both start seeing a psychiatrist, Mendel, with whom Trina starts another relationship.
Furthermore, the musical has shifting narrative lenses that offers the story via different points of view. "It just has this beautiful, bold storytelling style where it moves between layers of reality and internal monologue," Baker says. In addition to interestingly interwoven storylines, Falsettos has no dialogue and is entirely delivered in musical verse.
"[Mendel, Marvin's psychiatrist] sort of realizes that he’s pretty lonely, and he puts all his efforts into his work, and he doesn’t have someone to call his own," Communication senior Will Kazda explains his character. "So he deals with sort of guilty feelings of falling in love with his patient’s wife, but then, you know, eventually decides that his happiness is worth that."
Kazda's enthusiastic character shines through in his portrayal of Mendel. In a proposal scene with the equally cheerful Trina (played by Communication sophomore Laura Winters), the smiles on the couples' faces radiate with their voices as the music swells before Kazda yelps with joy. "She said yes!"
Similar to Mendel, Trina tries to untangle these challenging relationships. "Trina's arc is a lot about her relationships with all these men in her life," says Winters. "Trina is still trying to figure out how she fits in the equation with Marvin, and she can’t really get away from him as much as she would want to, but she’s kind of learning that even the people that she doesn’t like or want to see, they’re all kind of stuck together and she has to kind of learn to deal with that."
In the midst of all these complex character webs, Marvin and Trina's son, Jason, portrayed by a student from the Evanston Township High School, is learning to grow up within this dynamic environment.
"We were on the fence about whether we were going to use a college-age boy, a college-age girl, or a high school boy to play this young character," says Baker. He explains that the group worked with theater professor Betsy Quinn, who also works at Haven Middle School, to find an appropriate actor to fill the role. After holding auditions, the group decided on 14-year-old Jacob Bond to play Jason. "He brings this soul and — I don’t want to say innocence because that makes him sound like a naïve little kid — but he brings this earnest youthfulness to it. He makes the family feel more like a complete family, and that’s really cool."
Along with Jason, the other characters also hash out their own identities in a journey of self-discovery. Mendel learns to adapt to his new role as a husband and father, Kazda explains, while Trina struggles to develop a more fulfilling life as a domestic, stay-at-home mother, Winters adds.
"The characters develop and, throughout thick and thin, high and low, they sort of find themselves stuck together," Baker says. "Sometimes that’s beautiful, sometimes that totally sucks, but they are this unit that is with each other for all these big moments in their lives."
In a number with the full ensemble, this idea of a family unit is evident. Three couples, seemingly in their own world, are still interconnected as they perform parallel dance moves and harmonize within the same melody. And, each with their own issues to solve, they remain optimistic with an uplifting uniform refrain: "Everything will be alright!"
"It’s a show that has a lot of heart to it," Kazda says. "It’s just really real sometimes and it speaks to a lot of different people trying to figure it all out as they march along, dealing with who you are and figuring yourself out and living day to day, loving another person."
Falsettos premieres in the Louis Room in Norris on Thursday Feb. 9 at 8 p.m., with additional shows on Friday Feb. 10 at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m and Saturday Feb. 11 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tickets are $5 for students and $10 for the general public.