History Theatre / Falsettos

* ButNotTooGay: Marvin is committed to presenting himself as masculine. In his relationship with Whizzer, he must be the breadwinner while Whizzer and Trina cook for him, he refers to Whizzer's interest in fashion as "dreck," and his competitive streak leads to him dumping Whizzer after the latter wins at chess.

* TragicAIDSStory: [[spoiler: Act 2 becomes this, with Whizzer succumbing to AIDS by the end of the show. Notably, the disease is never called as such due to the 1981 setting, but is generally understood to be this. By extension, Marvin is implied to have contracted HIV from Whizzer, and may have died not long after the end of the show.]]

* PatterSong: "High-School Ladies at 5 O'Clock".

* BSODSong: "Marvin Hits Trina"

%%* DysfunctionalFamily zce. Please explain.

''March of the Falsettos'' centers on Marvin, a neurotic gay Jewish man in 1979 New York. He has recently divorced his wife, Trina, and left his child, Jason, to be with his lover, Whizzer, an attractive younger man. Trina starts seeking treatment from Marvin's psychiatrist, Mendel and the two eventually fall for each other. Marvin expects both Trina and Whizzer to serve his needs and be loyal to him, an attitude that leaves him alone, trying to salvage his relationship with his son.

''Falsettos'' is a musical with music by William Finn and book by Finn and James Lapine. The show is an amalgamation of the latter two musicals in Finn's "Marvin Trilogy": ''March of the Falsettos'' (which was first performed off-Broadway in 1981) and ''Falsettoland'' (first performed in 1990). The two plays are preceded by ''In Trousers'', which is not included in ''Falsettos''. The show opened on Broadway in 1992, starring Michael Rupert as Marvin, Barbara Walsh as Trina and Stephen Bogardus as Whizzer. It closed in 1993 after 587 performances. In the Fall of 2016, ''Falsettos'' was revived for a limited run through January 2017 starring Creator/ChristianBorle as Marvin, Stephanie J. Block as Trina and Creator/AndrewRannells as Whizzer.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Most of the main cast, most notably Jason and Marvin.
** Jason is heavily implied throughout Act 1 to be somewhere on the autism spectrum. He is highly intelligent for his age, but is unsure how to act in social situations, tends to fixate on specific interests, and in the revival, is shown covering his ears and looking quite distressed in one of the many scenes in which his parents yell at each other.
** Marvin (and to a much lesser extent, Whizzer and possibly Trina) shows many signs of various personality disorders, though none of them perfectly fit any one DSM diagnosis.
** Mendel also may suffer from some kind of anxiety disorder.

* ParentWithANewParamour: Jason has good relationships with both of his parents' significant others:

* ParentWithANewParamour: Jason actually ''encourages'' Mendel to act on his feelings for his mother, to make both of them happy.

* {{BSOD Song}}: "Marvin Hits Trina"

* CastFullOf Gay: Four out of the seven characters are gay.

* {{Coming Out Story}}: Notably averted - all of the gay characters seem to be out.

* {{Final Love Duet}}: "What Would I Do"

* {{Foregone Conclusion}}: [[spoiler: That Marvin and/or Whizzer would contract HIV, and likely die of some AIDS-related illness.]] The second act does take place in 1981 after all.
* {{I Want Song}}: "A Tight-Knit Family"
* {{Jerk with a Heart of Gold}}: Although Act I has Marvin veering well into {{Jerkass}} territory, by the end he fully embodies this trope.
* {{Jewish and Nerdy}}: Jason would rather stay home and play chess than socialize. Later, the company bemoans that his all-Jewish baseball team is better at "reading Latin" than actually playing baseball.
* {{Jewish Complaining}}: The opening song, "Four Jews in a Room Bitching," is all about this trope.
* {{Jewish Mother}}: Trina
* {{Jews Love to Argue}}: Most of Marvin's interactions in the first act and the first half of the second act are spent arguing.

* {{No Antagonist}}: While Marvin is around terrible enough to be logically seen as the [[{{Villain Protagonist}} bad guy]] in Act I (as well as the original ''March of the Falsettos''), the second half of the play focuses entirely on the oncoming of Jason's bar mitzvah, which is complicated by Whizzer's case of AIDS.
* OppositesAttract: Marvin and Whizzer admit that the only thing they have in common is a love for [[{{Jews Love to Argue}} arguing]].

* {{Cast Full of Gay}}: Four out of the seven characters are gay.
* {{Coming of Age Story}}: Jason

* {{Dark Reprise}}: "Another Miracle of Judaism," "Falsettoland (Reprise)" and "More Racquetball"
* {{Dysfunctional Family}}

* {{First Law of Tragicomedies}}

* {{Opposites Attract}}: Marvin and Whizzer admit that the only thing they have in common is a love for [[{{Jews Love to Argue}} arguing]].
* {{Parental Love Song}}: "Father to Son"

* {{The Patriarch}}: This is how Marvin sees himself, especially in Act I. The rest of the characters don't always regard him in the same way.
* {{The Song Before The Storm}}: Either "What More Can I Say?" or "Something Bad Is Happening", depending on where you draw the line.

* {{Quarreling Song}}: "Year of the Child" and "Round Tables, Square Tables" in the off-Broadway ''Falsettoland'' which became "The Fight" in ''Falsettos''.

* {{Queer Romance}}: Marvin/Whizzer and Charlotte/Cordelia.

* {{Sung Through Musical}}: Although there is some spoken dialogue, it's all brief and and vastly outnumbered by the singing in each scene.

* TheyveComeSoFarSong: Pretty much any song with Marvin and Whizzer after they get back together, but special mention goes to "What More Can I Say?" and "Raquetball".

** Jason is heavily implied throughout Act 1 to be somewhere on the autism spectrum, most likely Asperger's Syndrome. He is highly intelligent for his age, but is unsure how to act in social situations, tends to fixate on specific interests, and in the revival, is shown covering his ears and looking quite distressed in one of the many scenes in which his parents yell at each other.

* {{All Musicals Are Adaptations}}: Averted.

* AmicablyDivorced: Marvin and Trina. Sometimes.

* TragicAIDSStory: [[spoiler: Act 2 becomes this, with Whizzer succumbing to AIDS by the end of the show. By extension, Marvin is implied to have contracted HIV from Whizzer, and may have died not long after the end of the show.]]

* TragicAIDSStory: [[spoiler: Whizzer. By extension, Marvin is implied to have contracted HIV from Whizzer, and likely died not long after the end of the show.]]

''Falsettos'' is a musical with music by William Finn and book by Finn and James Lapine. The show is an amalgamation of the latter two musicals in Finn's "Marvin Trilogy": ''March of the Falsettos'' (which was first performed off-Broadway in 1981) and ''Falsettoland'' (first performed in 1990). The two plays are preceded by ''In Trousers'', which is not included in ''Falsettos''. The show opened on Broadway in 1992, starring Michael Rupert as Marvin, Barbara Walsh as Trina and Stephen Bogardus as Whizzer. It closed in 1993 after 587 performances. In the Fall of 2016, ''Falsettos'' was revived for a limited run through January 2017 starring Creator/ChristianBorle as Marvin, Stephanie J. Block as Trina and Andrew Rannells as Whizzer.

* {{Sung Through Musical}}

* {{No Antagonist}}: While Marvin is around terrible enough to be logically seen as the villain in Act I (as well as the original ''March of the Falsettos''), the second half of the play focuses entirely on the oncoming of Jason's bar mitzvah, which is complicated by Whizzer's case of AIDS.

* {{No Antagonist}}