William Finn & Ira Weitzman Falsettos Talk 11/17 Notes
Ira was at the Great Living Room Production of â78
he described IT as an âimpressionistic portraitâ of Marvin, which I thought was such a good way of saying it
âMarvinâs Giddy Seizuresâ was the first song he wrote for Alison, Mary, Kate, and him, which he called utterly lousy, âone of the worst songs,â 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 heâs 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 âwhich was a big mistakeâ Bill as Marv 2016!
since Andre said he couldnât be Marvin and direct, Chip replaced him
âChip wasnât happy about thatâ re: being Mendel and not Marvin in March
when he was at Williams, they were reading Emma, and Bill was like âsheâs so fucking irritatingâ and his prof was like âthatâs what makes it great. She [Jane Austen] is not afraid to make her characters complex and difficultâ 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 wouldnât 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 âLapine said noâ he wouldnât direct a show called that
Ira said heâs 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
