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News & Reviews.
CURTAIN CALL
Like falsetto itself, Falsettos, the
musical, demands a heck of a lot of
singing beyond the comfort zone of
even the most nimble vocal chords.
Combining William Finn's contempo-
rary score with brilliant lyrics by Finn
and James Lapine (think Stephen
Sondheim with an attack of hyper-
glycemia), Falsettos comes at you like
the rat-ta-tat of fusillade shot from a
water gun on a hot August day —
part of the delight is getting lost in the
cross-fire. To succeed as a production
necessitates some extremely good aim.
Under the direction of Nicholas P.
Calanni, the Jewish Ensemble
Theatre's presentation of this Tony
winner frequently coasts on the musi-
cal's inherent lyrical adrenaline, but
certainly creates some of its own.
From the opening song, (appropriately
titled "Four Jews in a Room
Bitching") Falsettos covers Jewish angst
like cream cheese covers egg bagels at
ian all-you-can-eat brunch: completely
and with a few capers to boot.
Juggling a wife and a kid and a
shrink and a male lover, Marvin's
(John Sartor) life stands in a bit of a
tumult. His wife, Trina (Milica
Govich), reeling from spousal rejec-
Ition, falls into the open arms Of her
therapist, Mendel (Jeff Nahan), who
just happens to be Marvin's psychia-
'trist as well. Marvin's lover, Whizzer
(Brian Schulz), tries to hold on to
IMarvin's love; Marvin can barely
admit he feels it himself. And son
Jason (Nicholas Cornfield) searches for
some sense of meaning in this mixed-
l up world of his, all the while some-
how preparing for his bar mitzvah.
Freud himself probably would have
had a psychoanalytic field day with
this material; Finn and Lapine just use
it to create unique musical theater,
crafting rhymes that cut through the
'clutter of contemporary verse.
'Couplets like "Your pain's a
priori/Let's hear the whole story" or
"One day, I'll remember your
faults/Meanwhile it's all tears and
schmaltz" keep the audience tuned in
for more poetic gems: To everyone's
delight, they keep coming.
The production has several stand-
out numbers: Govich's "I'm Breaking
Down" turns her from anxiety-ridden
housewife to potential Lady Macbeth,
carrot slicer in hand; Nahan and
Cornfield's "Everybody Hates His
Parents" takes the show on a hysterical
bender, spiraling for a brief moment
into a crazed rendition of Passover's
own "Dayenu."
Govich's and Schulz's singing
resides in a different league from the
rest of the princi-
pals; Govich espe-
cially soars above
the challenging
material. Under
Ben Cohen's musi-
cal direction, a taut
trio shines, but
because Cohen and
his musicians are
placed upstage of
the performers,
some musical num-
bers slosh and flow,
wanting for his
presence down
front.
For the most
part, Edith
Bookstein's cos-
tumes appear
anachronistic, for
1979 or otherwise.
If Mark Berg's lighting at times seems
uneven, he shows mastery in the
"Raquetball" number and its reprise,
turning the stage into a stylized shad-
ow dance.
Certainly, JET'S undertaking of
Falsettos should be applauded, if not
for the richness of the material, then
for its sheer ambitiousness. Still, diffi-
culty ratio aside, some of the voices in
the JET production could be more
firmly planted on the staves of Finn's
musical score. Otherwise, they risk
you taking Falsettos wildly comedic
voice, and whispering something far
less lyrical in your own.
— Review by Susan Zweig
OF NOTE ... NEW ON CD
Originally scheduled to be per-
formed in Israel in honor of the
3,000th anniversary of Jerusalem, but
MEN KEN Et TIM RICE'S
composer/lyricist team on the 1994
Tony-Award winning stage version of
Beauty and the Beast and wrote songs
together for the animated film version
of Aladdin.
Now available on CD (Walt Disney
Records), the "live-in-concert" record-
ing features musical highlights from
the performance and contains 19 all-
new songs and the vocal talents of the
seven original principals from the
company production, including
Marcus Lovett in the role of
David.
With musical styles ranging
from Semitic melodies to rock 'n'
roll to the classics, "King David is
not written for children," said
Menken. "It's really an adult
an old man, a young man, experience."
Left: Milica
Govich's rendition
of "Bn Breaking
Down" is a
standout in JET's
production of
Falsettos, run-
ning through Oct.
5 in the Aaron
DeRoy Theatre at
the Maple-Drake
JCC.
tuesdays with
Morne
delayed by
logistical and
scheduling
conflicts, Alan
— Gail Zimmerman
and life's greatest lesson
Menken and
Tim Rice's
King David
BETWEEN THE PAGES
finally made it
M itch Albom
Mitch Albom was a student at
to the
Brandeis University in the 1970s
Broadway stagelast May for a nine-day
when he met a man who would
run.
change his life. His name was Morrie
"More than any other musical I
Schwartz, and the sociology professor
have ever done, this attempts to cap-
would become Albom's mentor. With
ture a life," Menken told The Jewish
good intentions, Albom promised to
News. "Yes, it is a specific life, but it is
keep up the relationship following
everybody's life as well. Just as King
graduation.
David achieved greatness as a man and
But like many individuals on the
king and suffered because of his great
fast track, Albom, the award-winning
dreams, we all have great dreams and
Detroit Free Press columnist and
great accomplishments and prices to
nationally syndicated talk-show host,
pay for them."
lost touch. Until he saw Morrie, by
King David marks the third Disney
then diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's dis-
collaboration for Menken and Rice,
ease (ALS), on "Nightline" with Ted
who worked together as a
Koppel.
I