Pictured Photos from Falsettos ( above ) and In Trousers ( left ) .
Composer and lyricist William Finn is once again in the spotlight with the opening of the new musical, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee off-Broadway at the Second Stage Theatre last month.
Finn is also in the spotlight in Chicago as Porchlight Music Theatre, under the guidance of artistic director Walter Stearns, prepares to mount the nation's first Finn Festival March 19 through May 22. The festival will feature four musicals, including In Trousers; Falsettos; A New Brain; and the Chicago premiere of Elegies: A Song Cycle ( representing four decades of composition from 1970-2000 ) in rotating repertory over a 10-week period, at the Theatre Building, 1225 W. Belmont Avenue.
The festival will be presented in chronological order, with In Trousers ( 1978 ) and Falsettos ( 1981 & 1989 ) opening on Saturday, March 26 at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. respectively, followed by A New Brain ( 1998 ) and Elegies: A Song Cycle ( 2003 ) on Tuesday, April 26 at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.
This repertory look at Finn's work caps Porchlight's tenth anniversary season. Stearns said, 'Porchlight Music Theatre wanted to take on something ambitious and eventful. We planned a festival of musicals that celebrate one of our favorite composer/lyricists, William Finn. Porchlight has had great success in producing his works in the past. Our production of Falsettos ( in 1999 ) ran for a record six months and our recent production of A New Brain received great critical acclaim, several awards and played to sold-out houses.'
Finn's work is especially sympathetic to minorities, which has always given his work resonance in the gay community. Stearns said, 'Bill Finn writes what he knows. We have selected four of his most popular and personal works for the festival. These works trace the composer's development as an artist as well as illuminate four decades of gay, Jewish, liberal urban history in America. He tackles important questions about sexuality identity and relationships. Finn also puts a delightful quirky funny spin and has a great sense of perspective on the nature of life and death.'
Porchlight's Finn Festival is an ambitious undertaking that includes 26 actors and 24 behind-the-scenes artists, and 60 performances. The directors and designers for each show have been collaborating for several months to meet the repertory demands. Christopher Ash, the festival scenic designer, has coordinated the needs of the four productions into one scenic environment, dubbed 'Finnland.'
Stearns points out that the festival is the first of its kind. 'Audiences will delight to four unique original musicals filled with humor and tears in equal measure. It will be fun to see how we pull off multiple shows using one basic scenic unit. Some actors will be doubling up and performing in more than one show. You will get to see them stretch their acting muscles ( so to speak ) in a variety of situations.'
The ambitious undertaking has been 'complicated and very rewarding' according to Stearns. 'These four shows are rehearsing at the same time, often right next door to each other. The project has been a year in the making.' The Finn Festival holds a special place in Stearns' heart. 'It has been my great pleasure to curate this festival. I find Finn's work to be like taking a profound journey. In examining his work, I also look deeply at my own life and relationships and make new discoveries everyday. It has been a rewarding journey of self-discovery and I know audiences will enjoy it also.'
The festival is the finale of an important 10-year anniversary season for Porchlight, who, this season, increased their number of productions from two to six, collaborated with guest directors from the Goodman and Timeline Theatres, and established a relationship with Actors Equity Association, bringing a new level of professionalism to Porchlight's intimate brand of musical theatre.
William Finn is the writer and composer of more than a dozen musicals. His greatest commercial success thus far has been Falsettos, which opened on Broadway at the John Golden Theater on April 29, 1992, and ran for 486 performances. It won the 1992 Tony Awards for Best Music and Lyrics and for Best Book, the latter shared with James Lapine.
Finn has also written and composed the award-winning In Trousers ( Los Angeles Drama Critics Award ) , March of the Falsettos ( Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Musical, and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award ) and Falsettoland ( two Drama Desk Awards, and the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical ) , all produced at Playwrights Horizons. His Elegies: A Song Cycle, and A New Brain were presented at Lincoln Center.
Here's a brief overview of each play in the festival:
— In Trousers—Finn's earliest published work centers on young Marvin and the three most important women in his life: his wife, his teacher and his high school sweetheart. In Trousers features an eclectic, jazzy score that matches the emotional roller coaster that Marvin rides on as he attempts to balance and understand his own selfish 'childish' needs in the face of the trials and tribulations of adolescence. Porchlight's version offers a newer, reworked version of the show that incorporates more music from the original production and subsequent cast recording that has become a musical theater cult classic.
— Falsettos—The centerpiece of the festival is a revival of Porchlight's successful 1999 production of Falsettos, a musical based on the two one-act musicals The March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland. A continuation of In Trousers, Falsettos is a celebration of life and death, chasing wonderfully neurotic characters through the free-loving 1970s into the more complicated 1980s. When the confused hero, Marvin, decides to leave his wife and son and begin a new life with his male friend, Whizzer, he can't understand why everyone is unable to still remain one big happy 'family.' This progressive musical was the first to deal with the AIDS crisis—then known only as a mysterious disease plaguing gay men.
— A New Brain—Finn's most personal piece, A New Brain, was inspired by the author's own battle for life when he was diagnosed with a seemingly terminal illness. As the central character, Gordon Schwinn struggles to survive, he finds salvation in the healing power of art.
— Elegies: A Song Cycle—A Chicago premiere, Elegies is part theater and part cabaret, presenting a series of songs written in remembrance of departed friends in Finn's life. The show pays tribute to a disparate group including the impresario Joseph Papp, actors Peggy Hewitt and Jack Eric Williams, a Korean family who ran a deli once frequented by Finn, family relatives no longer alive, and his mother in one of the most moving sequences, 'When the Earth Stopped Turning.' Far from being a mournful series of songs, however, Elegies, as the title suggests, celebrates the lives of each of these people, and the effect they had on the author's own life.
Single tickets for The Finn Festival are $27-$30 and can be purchased at the Theatre Building Chicago Box Office or at any Ticketmaster Ticket Center; by calling ( 773 ) 327-5252 or ( 312 ) 902-1500; or by visiting www.ticketmaster.com . A Festival Pass, which includes tickets to all four productions, is $95. Discounts are available for groups, students and senior citizens by calling ( 773 ) 327-5252. Additional information is available online at www.porchlighttheatre.com .
New Chicago Tours Mix History and Humor
The Chicago Historical Society is teaming with The Second City improv theatre for 'Second City's First Tour,' a series of humorous and historic guided tours of Chicago's Old Town neighborhood, on Sunday afternoons starting on April 3, and continuing through September. Call ( 312 ) 337-3992.