Falsettos is one of my all-time favourite pieces of theatre. It is the soundtrack I always return to and always manage to find something new within. If you haven't seen or heard Falsettos, I highly recommend giving it a go (particularly before reading this, otherwise it may be a bit confusing.) So I felt I had to write an essay on maturity, one of its most prominent themes. It took me a long time to decide on just one theme to write an essay on when this is such an incredibly constructed piece of theatre that has so many deeply intertwined ideas that I have found really hard to not only separate, but to choose between. I wanted to talk about the show's complex exploration of love, family, acceptance, social pressure, maturity, blame, and so many more timeless topics. However, I ended up choosing maturity, as I felt that plays a role in every aspect of the play in both the relationships between characters and the characters' responses to their circumstances.
The best place to start when exploring maturity in Falsettos is by exploring the dichotomy between the show's use of childishness to highlight the immaturity shown by so many of the characters, particularly those who the audience would expect to be the very opposite, like the majority of the adults. When talking about childish behaviour, the best (and probably most obvious) place to start is with Marvin. The character who, until it comes down to life or death, only seems to have the capacity to victimise himself and act out against others. We see this from the very beginning of the play as Marvin is ultimately framed as the reason why their family is so dysfunctional and why Whizzer appears to be agitated and discontented throughout the start of the play. Marvin's first solo section begins directly after Four Jews in a Room at the start of A Tight-Knit Family when he clearly expresses the emptiness of his actions and the immature nature of how much he values social opinion. When he mentions how he 'does not wish to offend' along with his undeniable likeness to a petulant child as he continuously demands how he 'wants a tight-knit family.'. Along with the immature nature of his references to Whizzer as a 'friend.'. This not only frames his character as immature as he gives into the social pressures of 1979 (when Act I is set) to have a typical family that he clearly only yearns for superficially and why he feels the need to dismiss their relationship. We further see this manipulation and infantile behaviour progress along with the show even in something as simple as a song title like Love is Blind. There are countless ways this title can be interpreted, but some of the most relevant are the simultaneous emotional manipulation that the others can't see the the way he is acting (hence the blindness) along with Marvin's blindness to the juvenile nature of his own actions and acceptance of social pressure. This childish behaviour is shown time and time again through anecdote after anecdote where his actions are described as clearly demanding as he tells Trina, Jason, and Whizzer what to do and can't even have a sensible conversation with Mendel at the time when he is acting as his therapist. I believe this writing, however, is not for the purpose of showing Marvin as villainous but acts as William Finn's way of displaying the effects of the rampant homophobia of the 70s and 80s that was normalised and instead framing that as the villain of the show, as it clearly plays a role in Marvin's childish behaviour as he can't even accept himself and instead takes it out on others, but this is not his fault but the fault of society. Which utilised Finn’s personal perspective as a gay man on living through the AIDS epidemic to inform much of the social commentary of this partially autobiographical musical. As Marvin feels ostracised by something as personal as his own feelings. As when he is forced to grow up and accept himself when he finds out his time with Whizzer is limited, we see an immediate shift in character as he, for the first time, allows himself to actually love; his demeanour changes, and the demands stop.
What I think is also incredibly important to explore when talking about the theme of maturity throughout Falsettos is the very opposite of Marvin. Which is the premature adult behaviour displayed by Jason, who is supposed to be the child and yet remains the most consistently mature. Yet again subverting the expectations around family in comparison to found family. As we see Jason as mature from the very beginning, he seems to have to give advice to Mendel both when he is supposed to be acting as his therapist and when he should be playing the role of his father (even if it is alongside Whizzer and Marvin). We also see this in something as simple as when in Marvin at the psychiatrist at the beginning, Jason is shown to have a typically adult interest in chess along with Jason's ability to make decisions for himself as he chooses to ignore his father's advice that 'love is the most beautiful thing in the world' when Jason thinks 'games' are. This shows the calculative nature of his actions along with one of the few instances when we see him actually allowing himself to be vulnerable and childish, as he is clearly uncomfortable with love, probably due to never having seen an honest relationship. Whether it be Marvin and Whizzer's love that is oppressed by not only others but also themselves or Trina and Marvin's broken marriage that exists purely for the purpose of appearances. Throughout this song alone we see him make astute observations of his father and even later see his maturity around nearly cancelling his Bar Mitzvah both out of love for his found family of Whizzer, but I also think it is representative of the potential that Jason has been forced to grow up by circumstance, so a celebration of him becoming a man almost seems futile. This further emphasises the importance of maturity in Falsettos, as it frames maturity as not being correlated with age but with experiences. I think a perfect example of this point is the fact that the final number of act one is Father to Son. Which took me a long time to understand why that was the song that the audience would be left with for the duration of the interval. I now realise this is because Finn’s message is framed by highlighting the origin of maturity and ultimately how the hostile environment for queer individuals during the AIDS epidemic could break apart families, as this song shows shifting and unconventional family dynamics as well as the breakdown of characters who either seem to never grow up or have been forced to grow up too fast.
Another important journey in maturity throughout the show is the evolution of acceptance towards every aspect of their lives. Whether it be accepting Whizzer's imminent death, Marvin accepting his sexuality, Jason accepting his unconventional family, or Trina accepting that her life can’t go as planned and moving on. I think the most notable change is in Marvin, who acts as a child and spends his life emphasising and belittling his love for Whizzer changes. Once Whizzer is diagnosed with AIDS, we see an immediate shift in Marvin, who seems to understand at that point that his life can’t be about a social show, but that he has to choose love as he is going to lose it. As from that point onwards, we finally get an insight into Marvin who at that point ceases to be competitive and demanding but instead sings arguably some of the best (and most bittersweet) love songs in all of musical theatre. With numbers such as What More Can I Say?, Unlikely Lovers, and What Would I Do?. We also finally see Marvin and Whizzer seek support from their community through Dr. Charlotte and Cordelia, which again presents circumstance as the reason for maturity, not age. As well as highlighting the importance of ignoring social expectations that are life-limiting in such an extreme way to the audience, Marvin's rejection of himself quickly morphs into acceptance as he takes the news that he will lose the love of his life. By using this extreme example, I think Finn incredibly crafts this message that love shouldn’t wait for life and death. As well as that, despite the connotations of the title, love isn’t juvenile.
To further explore this idea of having the maturity to adjust, I think the best examples are Trina and Whizzer. As Trina expresses multiple times, such as in I Never Wanted to Love You, how forceful her own father was for her to get married and have the stereotypical life she describes as well as her own expectations of normality. We see Trina go through this uncertainty but quickly pick herself up again over and over again, showing her maturity to make the best with what she has sometimes for the right reason of love but also for reasons such as societal expectations around her role as a woman to have little control over her life that is often an undertone to many of her remarks. This again still drives home an adult understanding of making the best with what you have despite society as she learns to love her found family. We also see an incredible acceptance and maturity from Whizzer as he accepts his diagnosis and the imminent death that he is being presented with. Like Trina, who needs to sing I'm Breaking Down to process her feelings, Whizzer sings You Gotta Die Sometime to begin to understand his feelings and allow himself to feel some level of control over his life again. Both characters use humour as a way to understand how they feel and to move away from childish demands and look at how they need to move on to make the best of their situations with found family and the time they have left.
Ultimately the final point I want to make about Maturity in Falsettos is that it is about accepting the unknown. We see this as shifts in circumstances seem to throw characters into different states of mind as they have to explore what is certain and what is not. As we see this shift from Marvin's infantile behaviour at the beginning as he acts out and damages those around him who just try to show him love to Whizzer’s rational becoming that he is allowed to have a level of drama in his death as that is his maturity as he is not only accepting that he is going to die but also adding his personality within that as he works through his feelings effectively for the first time alongside Marvin. Again driving home the concept that support and adaptation not only breeds a richer life but also more worth within that for those around you. As all that characters finally choose to love and encourage the audience to do the same even when that love looks like so much pain and so far deviated for societal expectations but that its the hardships that makes any relationships worth having and hopefully by using an extreme example Finn inspires the audience to make a change while they have all the time in the world as that have seen the effect it was able to have on those who were running on limited time.
In summary, maturity has links to almost everything within Falsettos. As it seems to serve the purpose of highlighting that real growing up comes from accepting challenges and uncontrollable circumstances as well as rejecting conformity as normality doesn’t exist and only seems to cause more division and acts as a waste of precious time, which, as Falsettos teaches, we never have enough of with those we love.
-The image above is of the 2016 revival cast of Falsettos including Christian Borle as Marvin, Stephanie J Block as Trina, Andrew Rannells as Whizzer, Brandon Uranowitz as Mendel, Anthony Rosenthal as Jason, Betsy Wolfe as Cordelia and Tracie Thoms as Dr. Charlotte.