William Finn (music and lyrics) and James Lapine’s (book) Tony-winning musical returns to Broadway. Directed by Lapine, who also led the original Broadway production, Falsettos tells the story of a Jewish family living in New York City in the 1970s—Marvin, his wife Trina, and their young son Jason. The family is torn apart when Marvin leaves Trina for a man, Whizzer. When Whizzer is diagnosed with AIDS, the family must come together.
Rockwell Group designed a minimal, abstract set that serves as a metaphor for the unraveling emotions in the show. The stage is enclosed with a dark blue, box-like surround and the show opens on a dark gray cube at center stage, made of foam blocks that the cast disassembles. The Rubik’s-like cube is composed of roughly 20 separate blocks of various shapes, some of which become pieces of “furniture” that the cast moves around to create various scenes, from a psychiatrist’s office, to a kitchen, to a living room.