| In Trousers | |
|---|---|
 Original Cast Recording | |
| Music | William Finn |
| Lyrics | William Finn |
| Book | William Finn |
| Productions | 1979 Off-Broadway 1981 Off-Broadway revival 1985 Off-Broadway revival |
In Trousers is a one-act musical that premiered Off-Broadway in 1979 with book, music and lyrics by William Finn. It is the first in a trilogy of musicals, followed by March of the Falsettos and then Falsettoland .
The one-act musical, In Trousers, centers around a Character named Marvin. In this production he recalls his school years and the events that shaped him. He reminisces the past relationships he shared with, among others, his high school sweetheart and Miss Goldberg (his English teacher who let him play Christopher Columbus in the school play). A pivotal point to the plot, however, is his realization of his homosexuality. Torn between his natural inclination and his desire not to upset his family life as he knows it, Marvin begins a struggle of identity that continues to be a theme in the trilogy.
In Trousers, directed by Finn, was developed off-off-Broadway in 1978 [1] and mounted twice in 1979 at Off-Broadway's Playwrights Horizons, opening on February 21 for 24 performances and again on December 8 for 8. The cast -- Chip Zien, Alison Fraser, Joanna Green, and Mary Testa—was the same for both productions. The play was next produced Off-Broadway at the Second Stage Theatre in March 1981, with Jay O. Sanders as Marvin, Kate Dezina (Wife), Alaina Reed (His Teacher, Miss Goldberg) and Karen Jablons (His High School Sweetheart). Direction was by Judith Swift with choreography by Marta Renzi and Sharon Kinney. [2] The play was sharply panned. [1]
In 1985, a significantly rewritten version, with additional songs, a more cohesive storyline, and better defined characters (with Marvin's wife christened Trina), opened on March 26 at the Off-Broadway Promenade Theatre, where it ran for 16 performances. Directed by Matt Casella, it starred Tony Cummings, Catherine Cox, Sherry Hursey, and Kathy Garrick. (Cummings was replaced by Stephen Bogardus shortly after the show opened.) [3] In an author's note (dated April 1986) to this version, Finn wrote: "...a lot of the material was about my learning to write the kind of show songs I want to write. So the show is about Marvin's education, and mine." [4] In his review of this production, Frank Rich wrote: "As lovingly orchestrated by Mr. Finn's long-time collaborator Michael Starobin, the melodies linger well after the final curtain; so do running lyrical conceits built around phrases like breaking down and giddy seizures. Isn't it typical of this luckless season that the musical with the best score would be more enjoyably heard on a cast album than seen on stage?" [5]
After In Trousers was "viciously panned", Finn considered abandoning musical theater and attending medical school. [6] Finn also lost his singing voice permanently during a shower scene in the show. He recalled that "There were problems, but it was fun". [6] Finn felt that the negative reception to In Trousers was undeserved: "if the critic for the Times at that time had been more responsible, it would have been a considerable debut. But as it was, he just said it was junk. So I just started writing 'March of the Falsettos'." [6]
Finn eventually collaborated with James Lapine on two additional one-acters, March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland , which further explored the lives of Marvin and his family and friends. These two later were combined for a two-act Broadway production entitled Falsettos .
| Original Off-Broadway Cast at Playwrights Horizons (1979) [7] | Off-Broadway Cast at the Second Stage Theatre (1981) [8] | Off-Broadway Revival Cast at the Promenade Theatre (1985) [9] | BC/EFA Staged Concert (1993) [10] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marvin | Chip Zien | Jay O. Sanders | Tony Cummings/Stephen Bogardus | Chip Zien |
| Trina/Marvin's Wife | Alison Fraser | Kate Dezina | Catherine Cox | Alison Fraser |
| His Sweetheart | Joanna Green | Karen Jablons | Sherry Hursey | Victoria Clark |
| Miss Goldberg | Mary Testa | Alaina Reed | Kathy Garrick | Mary Testa |
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The original cast album is available on CD on the Original Cast Records label. In reviewing the Original Cast recording, William Ruhlmann wrote: "Since Finn turned out to be the most impressive songwriting talent to emerge in the musical theater in the 1980s, this record, a cast recording of the 1979 production, is of more than passing interest, even if, in comparison to its successors, it is slight. Still, the music is lively and melodic, the lyrics often provocative and surprising, and the performances, notably that of Chip Zien, who appeared in the later shows in a different role, arresting. [12] The album made some changes for time. For example, it cut the opening number, Very Opening, and abbreviated several songs, most noticeably The Rape of Miss Goldberg. The number How America Got Its Name was cut, except for Marvin's final words. How America Got Its Name was later significantly altered, with the original off-broadway version only being preserved in the original liner notes included with the vinyl release of the original off-broadway cast recording. [13]
William Alan Finn is an American composer and lyricist. He is best known for his musicals, which include Falsettos, for which he won the 1992 Tony Awards for Best Original Score and Best Book of a Musical, A New Brain (1998), and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (2005).
James Elliot Lapine is an American stage director, playwright, screenwriter, and librettist. He has won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical three times, for Into the Woods, Falsettos, and Passion. He has frequently collaborated with Stephen Sondheim and William Finn.
Jerome Herbert "Chip" Zien is an American actor. He is best known for originating the lead role of the Baker in the original Broadway production of the musical Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim. He appeared in all of the "Marvin Trilogy" musicals by William Finn: In Trousers, March of the Falsettos, Falsettoland and Falsettos. In 2023, he returned to Broadway to critical acclaim in the lead role of Rabbi Josef Roman Cycowski in Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman’s Harmony.
Playwrights Horizons is a not-for-profit American Off-Broadway theater located in New York City dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers, and lyricists, and to the production of their new work.
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is a musical comedy with music and lyrics by William Finn, with a book written by Rachel Sheinkin, conceived by Rebecca Feldman with additional material by Jay Reiss. The show centers on a fictional spelling bee set in a geographically ambiguous Putnam Valley Middle School. Six quirky adolescents compete in the Bee, run by three equally quirky grown-ups.
A New Brain is a musical with music and lyrics by William Finn and book by Finn and James Lapine. Though many of Finn's previous musicals are to some extent autobiographical, A New Brain deals directly with his own harrowing experience with an arteriovenous malformation and the healing power of art. The hero of the musical, Gordon Schwinn, worries that he may not live to complete his work. Finn wrote many of the songs soon after his release from the hospital. The musical premiered Off-Broadway in 1998 and has been revived in the U.S., England and elsewhere.
Falsettoland is a musical with a book by James Lapine, with music and lyrics by William Finn.
Christian Dominique Borle is an American actor and singer. He is a two-time Tony Award winner for his roles as Black Stache in Peter and the Starcatcher and as William Shakespeare in Something Rotten! Borle also originated the roles of Prince Herbert, et al. in Spamalot, Emmett in Legally Blonde, and Joe in Some Like It Hot on Broadway, each of which earned him a Tony nomination. He starred as Marvin in the 2016 Broadway revival of Falsettos. He also starred as Tom Levitt on the NBC musical-drama television series Smash and Vox in the adult animated black comedy musical series Hazbin Hotel.
Mary Testa is an American stage and film actress. She is a three-time Tony Award nominee, for performances in revivals of Leonard Bernstein's On the Town (1998), 42nd Street (2001) and Oklahoma (2019).
Falsettos is a sung-through musical with a book by William Finn and James Lapine, and music and lyrics by Finn. The musical consists of March of the Falsettos (1981) and Falsettoland (1990), the last two installments in a trio of one-act musicals that premiered off-Broadway. The story centers on Marvin, who has left his wife to be with a male lover, Whizzer, and struggles to keep his family together. Much of the first act explores the impact his relationship with Whizzer has had on his family. The second act explores family dynamics that evolve as he and his ex-wife plan his son's bar mitzvah, which is complicated as Whizzer comes down with an early case of AIDS. Central to the musical are the themes of Jewish identity, gender roles, and gay life in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
March of the Falsettos is a 1981 musical with book, lyrics, and music by William Finn. It is the second in a trilogy of musicals, preceded by In Trousers and followed by Falsettoland. March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland later formed the first and second act respectively of the 1992 musical Falsettos.
Stephen Bogardus is an American actor. He originated the role of Whizzer in the Broadway musical, Falsettos.
Barbara Walsh is an American musical theatre actress who has appeared in several prominent Broadway productions. Walsh is known for her Drama Desk Award and Tony Award nominated role as Trina in the original Broadway production of Falsettos, as well as her turn as Joanne in the 2006 Broadway Revival of Stephen Sondheim's musical Company.
Michael John Rupert is an American actor, singer, director and composer. In 1968, he made his Broadway debut in The Happy Time as Bibi Bonnard for which he received a Tony Award nomination and the Theater World Award. Later, he starred as the title role in Pippin for three years on Broadway starting in 1974. He originated the role of Marvin in the William Finn musicals March of the Falsettos, Falsettoland and Falsettos. In 2007, he originated the role of Professor Callahan in the Broadway cast of Legally Blonde. Rupert has been the nominee and recipient of several Tony and Drama Desk awards. He won a Tony for his performance in Sweet Charity in 1986.
Alan Muraoka is a Japanese American actor and director who plays Alan, the current owner of Hooper's Store, on the television show Sesame Street since 1998. He currently serves on the board of directors at the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice, an LGBTQIA safe-space, community activist center, and educational bridge dedicated to honoring Bayard Rustin through their mission and good works.
Michael Starobin is an American orchestrator, conductor, composer, arranger, and musical director, primarily for the stage, film and television. He won Tony Awards for the orchestrations of Assassins (2004) and Next to Normal.
Little Miss Sunshine is a musical adapted from the 2006 film of the same name, with music and lyrics by William Finn and book and direction by James Lapine. The musical premiered in San Diego, California at the Mandell Weiss Theater, La Jolla Playhouse on February 15, 2011 and began performances Off-Broadway at the Second Stage Theatre in October 2013. The musical opened Off West End at the Arcola Theatre in 2019.
Make Me a Song is a musical revue, with lyrics and music by William Finn, which was conceived by Rob Ruggiero in 2006.
Brandon Jacob Uranowitz is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Adam Hochberg in the musical An American in Paris (2014–15) and Mendel Weisenbachfeld in the 2016 Broadway revival of Falsettos, both of which earned him nominations for Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. His performances in Burn This (2019) and Leopoldstadt (2022–23) earned him nominations for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play; he won the award for his performance in Leopoldstadt. His other Broadway credits include Baby, It's You! (2011), Prince of Broadway (2017), and The Band's Visit (2018).
The Marvin Trilogy is a trilogy of one-act musicals created by William Finn. It consists of In Trousers (1978), March of the Falsettos (1981), and Falsettoland (1990). The musicals center on Marvin, who has left his wife to be with a male lover, Whizzer, and struggles to keep his family together. The first act of the trilogy focuses on Marvin's life as an adolescent, the influential women of his life, and his struggle to accept his sexual identity. Much of the second act explores the impact his relationship with Whizzer has had on his family. The third act (Falsettoland) focuses on how family dynamics evolve as Marvin and Trina plan for their son's Bar Mitzvah. Central to the musical are the themes of Jewish identity, gender roles, and gay life in the late 1970s and early 1980s.