Previews: FALSETTOS at Dezart Performs

Dezart Performs (dezartperforms.org) presents FALSETTOS  directed by Dennis Courtney,April 18 - April 27 2025 at the Pearl McManus Theater in the Palm Springs Woman’s Club, 314 S. Cahuilla Road, Palm Springs. Book by William Finn and James Lapine with music and lyrics by Finn, FALSETTOS is a hilarious and heartbreaking story about family, ex-spouses, bar mitzvahs, baseball and AIDS. FALSETTOS runs 120 minutes with one intermission.

Featuring a sung-through score and set against the backdrop of the AIDS epidemic, FALSETTOS is the story of an eccentric and dysfunctional, but loving Jewish family in New York at the end of the 1970s. Initially, Marvin (Tim Ewing) seems blessed with the perfect family; a caring wife, Trina (Stephanie Lynne Mason) and a young son, Jason (William Spitz) but the family is soon broken apart when Marvin leaves Trina for his lover, Whizzer (Patrick Wallace). Trina, meanwhile, ends up romantically involved with the family psychiatrist, Mendel (Skylar Gaines) while their son, Jason, is stuck in the middle. Included in the mix are lesbian neighbors Dr. Charlotte (Laura Stearns) and Cordelia (Maggie Barry). When tempers flare and problems escalate, the entire family must set aside their issues and come together.

A synthesis of a trilogy of one acts: In Trousers, March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland, 

FALSETTOS premiered on Broadway in 1992, nominated for seven Tony Awards, winning Best Book and Best Original Score. The 2016 Broadway revival was nominated for five Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical. Both the original cast and 2016 revival cast performed at the Tony Awards. Director Dennis Courtney says, "I am beyond excited and truly grateful to Michael Shaw and Dezart Performs for the opportunity to direct this gem of a show.  FALSETTOS has been on my wish list for quite some time. I always look to direct plays ripe with humanity and love. In FALSETTOS, we see that love always wins, despite our imperfect selves. Even as we sometimes fumble through, making questionable choices, hope and forgiveness can carry us through to a better understanding. We can all see ourselves in one or more of the characters in FALSETTOS."

“Exhilarating and heartbreaking.”

-The New York Times

“The lyrics make you constantly marvel at the ability to combine clever humor, 

complex phrasing and searing tenderness.”

-The Hollywood Reporter

 “There's no shortage of laughs, from tuneful one-liners, to entire numbers.

 And act two is a work of lyrical comic genius.”

-Entertainment Weekly

For tickets and information about Dezart Performs, visit dezartperforms.org or call 760-322-0179 ext 1.