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This West End musical, featuring a barmitzvah and the song Four Jews in a Room Bitching, deserved greater representation – and raises other questions about identity
If this summer’s spats in theatreland have taught us anything, it’s that producers should pause whenever they itch to answer controversy. First came the mansplaining team behind Idris Elba’s Tree – initially at the Manchester international festival – with its disputed authorship. Then Selladoor, producing the musical Falsettos, leapt into aggressive-defensive mode when a group of Jewish theatremakers, in an open letter, claimed the show apparently lacked any Jewish voices among the cast and creative team. For good measure, the production’s “cultural consultant” tweeted about actors sporting yellow stars on their sleeves. None of this was a good look.
Why the controversy? Falsettos, by the US composer William Finn, is undeniably a Jewish story. Most of its characters are Jewish, and the last scene portrays an unconventional barmitzvah. Its irresistible opening number is Four Jews in a Room Bitching (“I’m neurotic, he’s neurotic, they’re neurotic, we’re neurotic”). There are scraps of Yiddish, squabbles about catering, angst for days. You can understand the argument that, without Jewish voices in the room, the musical will lack the savour and authenticity of lived experience – that everything will feel slightly awry, like the story’s “shiksa caterer” who can’t pronounce gefilte fish. Continue reading...