Falsettos prequel. In Trousers is about the life of Marvin and three women in his life prior to his divorce. It is technically not a prequel to Falsettos because it was written and performed first, but it functionally serves as one since Falsettos has completely eclipsed it in popularity.
The Rape of Miss Goldberg. The tenth track in In Trousers. This song went minorly viral on TikTok a few years ago, becoming one of the best known songs in the musical.
Goldberg and Sweetheart. Alongside Marvin and Trina, two of the protagonists in both In Trousers and Falsettos, there are two characters unique two In Trousers: Miss Goldberg, Marvin's teacher, and Sweetheart (who was indeed Marvin's High School Sweetheart).
Trinity College. Trinity College put on the only full-length video recording of In Trousers, which is available on YouTube. Most In Trousers fans got into the show after watching this performance.
1979 In Trousers. There is one professional audio recording of the show: the 1979 version. The show was rewritten three times, with the 1979 being the first iteration.
No names. This refers to the fact that none of the women characters in In Trousers are given full names: they are simply referred to through their relationship to Marvin (his Wife, his Sweetheart, and his Teacher (though she is also called Miss Goldberg)).
Misogyny. In Trousers explores misogyny and how it affects human relationships through the lens of the main character (Marvin) through his specific experiences. This idea is simultaneously obscured and emphasized by the non-chronological plot structure and often absurd lyricism.
Columbus monologue. The Marvin Trilogy (In Trousers, March of the Falsettos, and Falsettoland, the latter two being combined into Falsettos) is fully sung through, with the exception of one monologue given by Marvin towards the end of the musical. In this monologue, Marvin tells a heavily fictionalized account of Columbus' life as it mirrors his own.
CD/vinyl recording. In Trousers cannot be streamed on most online music platforms, but the 1979 recording is available on CD and vinyl. The vinyl comes with a lyric sheet, the only official copy of the lyrics for the 1979 version.
Giddy seizures. Throughout the course of the musical, young Marvin is repeatedly said to experience a type of fit referred to only as a "giddy seizure." Whether this is simply a metaphor for how Marvin acts out for attention, a thing Marvin actually does for attention, a legitimate medical condition, or some combination of the three is a highly contested topic within the fandom.
The Nausea Before the Game. This is a song from the 1979 version of In Trousers which was cut from the 1985 version, yet remains one of the most popular songs within the In Trousers fandom.
[Does Podcast in Spanish]. The name of the "podcast" which some of the songs from In Trousers were uploaded to Spotify under (though many of them were taken down due to copyright infringement).
The parakeet. In the song Your Lips and Me and its reprise, Trina and Marvin are mentioned to own a parakeet which cannot fly, which Trina briefly uses a symbol to describe her own place in her relationship with Marvin. The "parakeet that still can't fly" has since become a joke in the fandom, occasionally used as a way to nudge other fandom members about their shared knowledge of the show.
I'm Breaking Down. While I'm Breaking Down is now known as a song in Falsettos, it was originally a song from In Trousers, added in sometime after the 1979 version.
Down to where? Florida? Chip Zien, the original actor for Marvin, did not originally understand that Marvin was gay. The first time he talked about the number Whizzer Going Down, which is about Marvin's first time sleeping with a man, he asked writer William Finn where Whizzer was going down to, Florida?βwhich became one of his favorite stories to tell about the show.
Bad 1979 review. The reason In Trousers was rewritten six years after its original performance was because it reviewed very poorly. One particularly scathing review by the New York Times is thought to have essentially ensured the show would fade into relative obscurity.
*(The author prefers.) Part of a footnote in the official In Trousers script, which states that William Finn prefers the lyric "I saw them in the den with Marvin grabbing Whizzer's ass" to be sung "I saw them in the den with Marvin stuck in Whizzer's ass."
(Sounds of bodies slapping). One of the few listed stage directions in the script, included is part of the song Whizzer Going Down. To mimic the sound of sex, this part of the song is often performed as a tap number.
1979 Columbus monologue. Though not included as part of the recording, there is an official copy of the monologue from the 1979 version of In Trousers included in the vinyl album script. It is also included in the Falsettos Plume book and circulated in spaces online.
Joanna Green. The original actor for High School Sweetheart; while the other actors in In Trousers continued to have public acting careers, Green has not known to have been in any roles other than In Trousers.
"A social disease." In his 1979 Columbus monologue, Marvin mentions that, "one day outside Poma del Fuego, [Columbus] picked up a social disease from a young man..." before he is realized to be sick and shipped out to sea on a boat with other men with the disease. Written in 1978, William Finn noted that he had no way of knowing the impact AIDS would soon have upon the queer community, or that Marvin's own character arc would finish with his contraction of the illness from his own lover and eventual death.
Bad 1985. Even though the 1985 version of In Trousers was written to have broader appeal, it also got a poor review in the New York Times.
Nahoodyooayahsoblue. Line sung in The Nausea Before the Game thought to be complete gibberish.
William Finn and sailors. William Finn has multiple works that somehow involve sailors, inspired by his own partner's love of sailing. In Trousers does this through the motif of Columbus and songs like Set Those Sails, but interestingly precedes William Finn's introduction to his partner.
1993 In Trousers. There is a lesser-known rewrite of In Trousers done between 1992 and '93, which is a combination of the 1979 and 1985 versions. This version was first published in the Falsettos Plume book.
The Stoning of Marvin. A silly In Trousers fandom event held by the @wettest-marvin-boy blog where the artist drew fans throwing stones at teenage Marvin over his manipulative behavior.
Unlikely Exit. The name for the short thematic reprise of In Trousers (The Dream) which plays at the end of What Would I Do? in Falsettoland.
"This is an upbeat show." Marvin's final, clarifying line before the first track of the 1993 version of In Trousers plays. Notably the only clear 4th wall break in the trilogy.
1981 In Trousers. While this production is listed on the Wikipedia page for In Trousers, the only meaningful record of its occurrence is (bad) a New York Times review.
San Francisco? A cut line from an In Trousers monologue draft only included as part of a random assortment of libretto selections in the NYPL archives. Comes from a conversation between Columbus and the other sailors as they try to offer up names for the land Columbus wants to discover, each of the names being those of famously queer American cities.
