fuckyeahwilliamfinn

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What more can I say?

I tried to write something closer to when it happened but I couldn't keep it short. Honestly it feels impossible to express everything I'm feeling but I feel obligated to say something formally.

It was gutting to learn of Bill Finn's passing. His work has changed my life and rewired my brain in innumerous ways since I was a teeenager. When I first discovered his music, I just couldn't believe someone else Thought like me. When nothing made sense, his shows did. His work has taught me some of the most important lessons I've learned. I wouldn't be the person I am without it.

No one does it like him.

May his memory be a blessing.

-Emily

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I did some digging because I ALSO had not heard of this production and oh my god how cool

I found this additional photo of Rupert and the rest of the cast, there must be more out there and if anyone else can find them I'd personally love to see it

WHY HAS NOONE EVER TOLD ME THAT MICHAEL RUPERT PLAYED GORDON SCHWINN IN A NEW BRAIN IN 2001?!??! IM GOING CRAZY

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Some programme pages from the 1981 Playwright's Horizons and 1987 London production of March of the Falsettos!

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Malcolm Gets and William Finn. What are they doing??????

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A New Brain: Czas Na Nowy Mózg

First Polish production of William Finn's A New Brain

Warsaw, May 2023 - November 2023

Produced by Stowarzyszenie Hiznits (Association Hiznits)

Photos by Kasia Anuszewska

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Thread of photos + recordings of & information about the 2017 Dutch A New Brain production by De Kernploeg!!!!

Some Info:

This production was the 4th production of ANB of the Netherlands (as far as I'm aware) though it's often labeled to be the Dutch premiere of A New Brain, which isn't true. It is however the biggest and most popular ANB production that's been in the Netherlands and they did 8 shows with an audience of 200 people.

This musical was also the premiere musical for De Kernploeg, a theatre company (I think??) who also did productions of She Loves Me, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, and Hello Again in the Netherlands (while doublechecking this I found out they're doing another production next year which is SUPER exciting to me cause their last production was two years ago)

ANYWAYS enough rambling, here's some recordings!:

First off, this 10 minute recording of previews! It has Sailing, Mother's Gonna Make Things Fine, and I Have So Many Songs/Heart and Music. -I ADORE this video. Absolutely obsessed with Lone van Roosendaal singing Mother's Gonna Make Things Fine

Then, this bit from An Invitation To Sleep in My Arms. (Ignore the guy standing in front of the camera at the start, he goes away after a few seconds lol)

Then there's Lisa's part from I Feel So Much Spring from the show!

Another recording from the show, this time of the last part of I Feel So Much Spring and of the bows!

Thennn these 4 full audio recordings from the show! Heart and Music, Sailing, And They're Off, and An Invitation To Sleep In My Arms

And another rehearsal clip from An Invitation To Sleep In My Arms but without Rhoda

Aand a playlist of some BTS stuff + interviews

That's it for recordings! Though I also have a full audio recording of this show and also a script! Message me if you want those. I should note that this production was based off the 2015 Encores! production yet the script is based off the 1998 one 🤷 assuming they had to change it to be able to sell it or just something to do with licensing.

Anyways, heeeree's some pictures :]

Aaaand finally here's a link to a Google Drive folder with these videos and some more pictures! (I made it a while ago idk how up to date it is with my research but whatever)

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The Original Text for How America Got Its Name

I recently purchased the vinyl for the 1979 version of In Trousers and in the liner notes it has the entire original text for How America Got Its Name. It's quite different from the 1985 version with the main difference being that Marvin is the only one who says anything; it is a solo monologue. There are other differences, but I would rather not list them all out. Anyway, here we go:

Marvin: (Dressed like Columbus) Columbus didn't use to be a sailor. He was first and foremost director of medicine at a prestigious institute for doctors in Eldoro. That's the truth. But nobody ever talks about his medical career anymore. He was embarrassed out of his job. Harassed. Made to be the butt of jokes at medical conventions. This is what happened. One day--now this is the truth--one day outside Poma del Fuego, he picked up a social disease from a man with red hair and broad shoulders like his mother. By the time Columbus got to the Verona Baths, he had cancres all over his chest where once bronze hairs grew. And back at the Institute no one could fail but notice an incredible diminution of intelligence on Columbus' part. He was half insane by the time they strapped him to a ship, and pushed him to sea.

MUSIC

With him on that boat were other socially diseased persons. From the few clippings extant, it appears they had a ball the whole trip and screwed like bunnies, never worrying if finally they were going to contract the dread disease, because they all had it, you see--so they debauched the whole night and awoke refreshed. This went on for thirty-four days.

MUSIC

I am going to discover Cincinnati, Columbus cried. Why Cincinnati, they asked him. For my Aunt Cynthia and Uncle Nathan, he said, who died four years earlier in a plague which my Institute never quite found the cure for. This is what the Jews do, he added, name other countries for the dead.

MUSIC

Halfway out to sea, or on the thirty-fifth day, Columbus' cancres began to disappear. He stopped moaning in the middle of lovemaking and began to say: "How about that, young man?" or sometimes, boasting, "Tell me you didn't like that." Well, everyone was glad to see Columbus becoming his old self again, but everyone was saying what a prick Columbus was. In his diary he wrote: "Whatever it is I discover, it better not give me any lip."

MUSIC

Fifty miles off Martha's Vineyard, it became clear that everyone's cancres had disappeared, their brains restored, bodies once again sound; and everyone had a good laugh about it, maybe whistled with relief, maybe gave a few pecks on the cheek here and there, but there was no heavy petting, you can be sure of that. "Hey, keep your hands off me fella"--you heard that pretty often on deck. And then later, "I said keep your hands off me!" Well, Lord knows, many lonely evenings, clippings extant say, because each man feared acquiring the dread disease which had brought him there in the first place. In his diary Columbus posed the question: "How many passionate persons can fit comfortably on the head of a pin?" He pondered the question, he sat with his chin resting neatly in the palm of his hand, and he replied. Question: "How many passionate persons can fit comfortably on the head of a pin?" Answer: "Merely one. Or... I don't know." (MUSIC BEGINS) I don't know.

MUSIC

So there they were on board looking out to see this new land Columbus was going to discover. And soon the blue horizon disappeared to be replaced by a magnificent array of greens. Fir green, evergreen, lime green, dark green, light green. The entire palette of greens stood maybe only a day's float ahead of them. No one moved. No one was allowed to move. When they were maybe fifty or seventy-five yards away, Columbus could not withstand his enthusiasm any longer. "My land is so beautiful," Columbus cried. "So beautiful," they agreed in unison, like a chorus, like a barbershop quartet multiplied by fifteen. 'So very beautiful." There were tears in Columbus' eyes. "Men," he turned to them, he looked at every one straight in the face, he was very moved by this discovery, "Men, no longer do I call this land Cincinnati; rather, this fine, green, beautiful land which I discovered today, I name AMERICA! After Amerigo Vespucci. A young man I met in Poma del Fuego with red hair and broad shoulders like his mother.

MUSIC

The thing about explorers is: they discover things that are already there. Columbus closed his diary and went ashore.

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Something Better Better Happen- Idina Menzel Little Miss Sunshine musical workshop Feb. 2011. This workshop also featured Brian D’arcy James, Christian Borle, Sally Wilfert, and Andrew Rannell.

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Since we didn’t get to hear “Whenever I Dream” at Encores, here’s the version from the German Cast Recording.

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Mary Testa sings Change from a soundboard recording of A New Brain [Off Broadway, 1998]

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omg

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Heather MacRae and Janet Metz in Falsettoland.

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What Would I Do from Falsettos by William Finn

Performed at 54 Below by Zachary Prince and Brandon Uranzowitz, 2017 ("Brandon Uranowitz: The Songs of William Finn)

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You’re a beast, but at least when you play me you win…

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Falsettos + Textposts (Part 2)

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The things you learn by reading librettos. 

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William Finn at the 1992 Tony Awards.