There’s hardly a moment in the exhilarating, devastating revival of the musical “Falsettos” that doesn’t approach, or even achieve, perfection. This singular show, about an unorthodox family grappling with the complexities of, well, just being a family — unorthodox or otherwise — has been restored to life, some 25 years after it was first produced, with such vitality that it feels as fresh and startling as it did back in 1992.
The achievement seems almost miraculous, because in the intervening years, America has gone through cultural changes that might, in theory, have made the show, with its sweet-and-sour score by William Finn, and its economical book by Mr. Finn and James Lapine, seem a relic.
The musical, which opened on Thursday at the Walter Kerr Theater in a Lincoln Center Theater production, once again directed by Mr. Lapine — whose work is so sharp it’s as if he were seeing the show with a new pair of eyes — follows the topsy-turvy fortunes of a family of four, which eventually grows to five and maybe more.
At its center is the confused heart of Marvin (Christian Borle), a gay man in 1979 who introduces us in an early sequence to his lover, Whizzer (Andrew Rannells), and his ex-wife, Trina (Stephanie J. Block), along with Marvin and Trina’s precociously smart son, the 10-year-old Jason (Anthony Rosenthal). Although no one seems wholly at ease — rarely does anyone in this hilariously neurosis-infused musical — they have continued to maintain an equilibrium, to the point of still sharing meals together.
But even in the early scenes, we see fractures. Marvin is possessive, critical, irked by the younger, boyishly handsome Whizzer’s lack of enthusiasm for monogamy. Mr. Borle, known for his Tony-winning comic performances in “Something Rotten!” and “Peter and the Starcatcher,” shines here as he has never before, in a role that lets him stretch beyond his trademark loopy humor. In his piercing blue eyes and his versatile voice, we can see and hear the full panoply of Marvin’s emotions: irritation and insecurity, adoration and ambivalence, and, yes, a large stock of neuroses.
In Mr. Finn’s witty lyrics, which for much of the show come flying at us in great bursts of chattering counterpoint, Marvin and the other principal characters point fingers at one another, trying to settle on the source of their dissatisfaction. (Marvin and Whizzer can’t even agree on how long they’ve been together: Nine months? Or 10?)
Marvin is too demanding and uptight, thinks Whizzer — and Trina. Marvin doesn’t think he’s necessarily the problem, and urges Trina to see his longtime psychiatrist, Mendel (a warmly funny and convincingly neurotic Brandon Uranowitz), who complicates matters by becoming almost instantly smitten with her.
Young Jason, played with an air of exasperated smarts by a thoroughly wonderful Mr. Rosenthal, sees his father as “morbid and dissatisfied” (with reason), and his emotional allegiance is mainly to his mother, at first. Trying to break through his isolation (Jason likes more than anything else to play chess alone), Marvin and Trina urge Jason to, yes, start seeing Mendel, too. He agrees to it, but only after consulting with Whizzer.
“Falsettos” — which began life as two one-acts, “March of the Falsettos” and “Falsettoland” — is a hard show to stop, so antic and frantic are the characters as they ricochet through their complicated lives. But Ms. Block, better here than ever, just about does it in “I’m Breaking Down,” a raging aria of angst that becomes a virtual nervous collapse in song, and a deliriously funny-sad high point.
David Rockwell’s set resembles a child’s building blocks, which are manipulated by the actors. Placed against a shifting Manhattan skyscape, it’s an ingenious illustration of what we are watching: people laboring to arrange a comfortable life for themselves and their loved ones, and continually having to readjust it.
The tone of “Falsettos” markedly changes in the second act, which takes place in 1981. By this time, Trina and Mendel have married, and Marvin and Whizzer have broken up. I had seen the original production on tour, but still felt the wind knocked out of me when the nigh-inevitable occurs: Whizzer comes down with a mysterious illness, and soon finds himself in the hospital. (Presumably, I don’t need to tell you what the illness is.)
