'Falsettos': Theater Review

The production's spectacular revelation, however, is Block. In addition to a powerful voice, she brings to the role such warmth, self-deprecating humor and frazzled sexiness (that in itself is an achievement for anyone wearing the late-'70s fashion crime of rust culottes and a mustard cardigan) that her every number is a showstopper. In a gorgeous take on "Trina's Song," she complains, "I'm tired of all the happy men who rule the world," bemoaning their immaturity while berating herself for loving them. Her giddy implosion, "I'm Breaking Down," delivered while preparing a banana and carrot surprise, may be the funniest musical performance currently on Broadway. And in "Holding to the Ground," she sings with melancholy honesty of trying to stay true to a life in which the rules keep changing on her. Trina is the moral center and in many ways also the plum role in Falsettos, her fondness for the man-babies in her life battling with exasperation and needy resentment at every turn. Read more