William Finn & Ira Weitzman Falsettos Talk 11/17 Notes
Ira was at the Great Living Room Production of ‘78
he described IT as an “impressionistic portrait” of Marvin, which I thought was such a good way of saying it
“Marvin’s Giddy Seizures” was the first song he wrote for Alison, Mary, Kate, and him, which he called utterly lousy, “one of the worst songs,” but he had to use it since it was the first
Ira then shyly admitted that he had been singing that this morning
Being the first song, this is where the name Marvin came from. He said he knew someone named Marvin growing up, and he thought it was such a silly name, so when he was writing Giddy Seizures he used it
He bought chicken wings to cook for the girls while they cleaned the apartment. Oh my god. I think he mentioned this elsewhere but wow.
The friend whose husband was gay and left her and their kids is coming to see it soon and he’s paying for her ticket since w/o her there would be nothing!!!!!
When they first did it at Playwrights Horizons Bill was Marvin and also was directing, but Andre Bishop told Bill: you can either be in it, or you can direct, and he chose to direct “which was a big mistake” Bill as Marv 2016!
since Andre said he couldn’t be Marvin and direct, Chip replaced him
“Chip wasn’t happy about that” re: being Mendel and not Marvin in March
when he was at Williams, they were reading Emma, and Bill was like “she’s so fucking irritating” and his prof was like “that’s what makes it great. She [Jane Austen] is not afraid to make her characters complex and difficult” this is why Marvin is so awful sometimes
Marvin has to hit Trina, because his anger is so grossly misplaced
People tried to get him to change that, but he wouldn’t budge even though he apparently let people (aka Lapine) step all over him w/ other stuff
WHY IS IT CALLED FALSETTOS? Falsetto voice is outside of the normal range, just as the characters are outside of the normal range
Originally the whole show was called Four Jews In A Room Bitching and “Lapine said no” he wouldn’t direct a show called that
Ira said he’s glad Bill agreed to change it, but then Bill POUTED and said he still liked that title
Later he said that he actually wrote a pre-Lapine draft called Four Jews in A Room Bitching, and they did a reading, and there was no Jason and it was really ambiguous and In Trousersesque
