#‘good men get better with age…. we’re just gonna skip that stage’

[nerdy-hyperfixations]

The HH fandom has to stop using every Christian Borle song for Vox because I’m listening to a playlist and just got ASSAULTED with What Would I Do and now I’m gonna cry- like. I did not need this right now 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[falsenettleland]

ohhh something about falsettos and growing up and learning what it means to be a man…

four jews in a room establishing the pettiness of the men. we’re manipulating people and we need to know our worst sides aren’t ignored. marvin talking about his ideal tight knit family where he’s the man of the house. i want it all. they faked dispair, they wet their bed, they combed their hair, they acted dead. want me. feed me. i bring home the bacon. make the dinner and love me. he’s a sometimes worthless. i’ll pay the bill until you’re old. i want to speak with whizzer. he wasn’t very smart but he was rich. love me please. he’s like a baby who’s denied. you’ve got a temper that redefines temper. he and whizzer live like… someone’s bringing you dinner. i’m not a giant man. i want a wife who knows what love is. the family was mine. they throw their knives. who is man enough to march to march of the falsettos. teach it to your brother. we’re lacking in maturity. treat him nice. now protect him. be a patsy, lose at chess.. clip the coupons. make the dinner and love him. he decides the role to assume. men and women talking. these are the games i play. ask me if i need him. get him out of my way. what i’ve done to you is rotten. i keep marching in place. watch as you sing how your voice will get much lower. a man kid, you’ll be kid. sing for yourself. it’s about time to grow up and face the music. it’s about growing up getting older living on a lover’s shoulder. this is the year of jason’s bar mitzvah. his life’s about to start! selecting girls for ones bar mitzvah. god, that’s the miracle of judaism. when you play me you win. all i want is you. it’s a celebration where i get presents. we laugh, we fumble, we take it day by day. and his lack of control kills what’s best in his soul and this is the start of his becoming a man. but if you could make my friend stop dying, god, that’d be the miracle of judaism. let’s have my bar mitzvah here! how’d you turn out so great. who do i thank for the man you became. once i was told, that good men get better with age. we’re just gonna skip that stage.

[simplyisa]

ok but singapore being daniel’s unofficial “goodbye” reminds me a lot of some lyrics from “what would i do?” from falsettos the musical

(within the context of maxiel)

“what would i do if i had not met you? / who would i blame my life on?”

“once i was told that all men get what they deserve / who the hell then threw this curve?”

“how am i to face tomorrow? / after being screwed out of today / tell me what’s in store”

“once i was told that good men get better with age / we’re just gonna skip that stage”

“Thank you, Daniel.”

[musical-spam]

i was once told that good men get better with age

we’re just gonna skip that stage

[christopher-biscuit]

Steve, trying not to cry: once I was told that good men get better with age

(Looking at Eddie’s grave)

Steve, voice breaks: we’re just gonna skip that stage

(He walks away, shoulders shaking from crying, alone again)

[mousetooth]

once I was told that good men get better with age.. we’re just gonna skip that stage.

[angstics]

thinking evil thoughts (house and wilson and “what would i do” from falsettos. once i was told that good men get better with age. we’re just gonna skip that stage.)

[radioduo]

feeling things

[paintedvanilla]

Just watched falsettos again and BAWLED. My eyes out. The girls are cryinggggggg

[roleplayswithchandler]

FACECLAIMS IN USE

river phoenix - jaime mcmahon - zombie rp

rider strong - curtis byrd - high school rp

jeremy jordan - nicholas madsen - teacher rp

aneurin barnard - elijah perris - murderer rp

rob mcelhenney - trent mcnamara - bar rp

[sungmee]

some friends and i were watching the Death Note musical and i said the tennis game had similar energy to the racquetball game in Falsettos and then oops, i thought about the endings of both musicals too hard (black roses symbolize "death, hatred, despair, sorrow, mystery, danger, obsession")

lyrics used are from ‘What Would I Do?’ from the musical Falsettos:

“what would I do if I had not seen you? who would I feast my eyes on? once I was told, that good men get better with age

we’re just gonna skip that stage”

[beingalivebeingalive]

Becoming Alive: Bravery Through Love

There is a theme in musical theatre that I absolutely love but have not been able to quite articulate. If I were to put it as succinctly as possible, I think it has to do with characters being very tender with one another in the face of great fear and uncertainty. I will use several different musicals that I think quite poignantly illustrate some of these points.

This idea of love in the face of fear can break down further into themes of bravery, loss, and acceptance.

In almost all of these examples the characters are losing something or giving up something to engage meaningfully with another character. The prospect of love can be existentially terrifying. To love a person in a world that is often chaotic and random, when all people are fallible, and life is fragile, and everything is temporary is sort of…well, terrifying. To love another person is to engage in a contract with the universe for inevitable pain. You say I love this person so much that its worth it, and in fact I know the more I love this person the more this inevitable pain will be. There is a positive correlation between love and future pain (on a very not fun graph). Love is inextricably tied to loss. But the instances where we see characters say yes anyway are extremely powerful.

This loss can come in many forms; sometimes it’s the loss of an ideal; the idea of how you thought your life would be.

Alison in Fun Home ultimately choosing to live authentically despite the fact she is giving up her old sense of self and possibly the acceptance of her family is a prime example. This willingness to let go of who she thought she may be and a life she may have allows her to love Joan. It also changes the trajectory of her story from her Father (and her mother) who were not able to do those things. I’ve talked about this before, but you can see this comparison in the songs “Changing My Major to Joan” and “Edges of the World.”

Bobby in Company eventually gives up a sense of security and safety in being alone and simply being an observer rather than a participant in life.

In Falsettos several character have to give up their idea of what a traditional family looks like, and eventually Marvin and Whizzer have to give up the idea of what their life together would be in the future: “They say good men get better with age, we’re just gonna have to skip that stage.” But love is saying yes anyway. When Whizzer asks Marvin in the end “Do you regret?” and Marvin replies “I’d do it again. I’d like to believe I’d do it again and again.” I mean…wow. Marvin knows the heartbreak he must go through, knows the costs of loving this person. Marvin knows how their story ends, but he’d accept that in order to be with Whizzer. Jason also loses a piece of his innocence in a way and the idea of fairness. Despite this he still visits the man who has become like another father and friend to him in the hospital. All the women in Whizzers life express a feeling of helplessness but again they don’t run from his suffering, they support him until the very end.

A willingness to be vulnerable and confused

In Into the Woods After “No More” where it looks like the baker is going to run away, he comes back to Cinderella, Little Red, Jack, and his baby.

All these people have learned what it is like to lose someone important to them and how it can spin your life into chaos, they know grief and they are currently looking into a very uncertain future at the point “No one is alone” happens. But despite not having the answers, instead of running they come together. The adults who feel like they know little more then the children who are currently relying on them, tell them about the importance of empathy and assure them they have people who care about them.

“Unlikely Lovers” from Falsettos is another reminder of the importance of community and family in times of uncertainty. They know love is not about having the answers it’s about being there. And Despite how insanely terrifying to live in that time must have been they knew they needed one another; they sing beautifully “Let’s be scared together.” This is a theme that I think is particularly resonant for LGBTQ+ people.

“Changing My Major to Joan” again is an example of this acceptance and willingness to explore the unknown: “Am I falling into nothingness or flying into something so divine.” Allison must learn to love and accept the part of herself that allows her to love Joan even though she doesn’t not know what will happen as a result.

Characters at pivotal moments where they can accept the challenge or run

After “No More” the baker goes back. Allison’s “Changing my major to Joan” and her father’s “Edges of the World” are actually quite similar you see these themes played out in smaller ways throughout the show but ultimately the conclusion is different for the two (again I talked about this more in depth in my “Maybe Not Right Now” post).

Out of these musicals this is probably best exemplified by Bobby in Company. It isn’t until the second half of the final song that we see any movement forward from the main character. [I could do a whole post just on this show and the crucial moments leading to this epiphany, but I’ll try to keep it brief here] Bobby in “Being Alive” is staring into the abyss he has finally been cracked open and he is confronted with a choice. He can no longer lie to himself, however that doesn’t mean he has to move forward, to make that leap. But he does.

This is very different from “Marry Me a Little” where Bobby envisions a love that involves none of the themes that have been discussed so far, no loss, no uncertainty, no depth. What he describes sounds more like emotionally distant but friendly roommates. Because Bobby knows that alone is safe.

But what all of these characters know/learn, as well as Bobby eventually, is that love is an act of bravery. Life isn’t safe, and heartbreak is inevitable whether you’re alone or not.

Whether it’s a willingness to be vulnerable and confused, a willingness to accept inevitable loss, facing an uncertain future despite our grief, and embracing the horrors of being known, when characters reach out across that chasm and find a hand reaching back…I can’t help but be moved.

Then Bobby sings what is to me one of the most poignant lines of the show

“I’ll always be there as frightened as you, to help us survive, being alive”

Because it really can be a terrifying prospect. To accept our selves and others, to make promises, to see and be seen, to say yes again and again and again despite how the story may end. To allow ourselves that moment of vulnerability where we reach out and hold our breath while our hand hangs there, waiting. To love and be loved by another person is one of the bravest things we can do as people. But we do it. Because it is essential to our survival, because we’re stronger together, because it’s part of what makes us truly beautifully alive.

“There are no answers, but who would I be if you had not been my friend.”

[ghostlypawn]

um when william finn wrote “once i was told that good men get better with age- we’re just gonna skip that stage” :/

[abitofjoyy]

I need to stop listening to What Would I Do because It makes me crazy...

”i was once told good men get better with age… we’re just gonna skip that stage” is going to be my final straw

[phe-purple-parade]

Gosh the lyrics of ‘What would I do?’ are just loving and poetic augh

Idek all the lyrics or the order of them yet but just,, jmngflhkdsdf

What would I do if I had not seen you? Who would I feast my eyes on? My goodness!

Who would I blame my life on? Bruh, h- his life I-

I realised this morning (‘cause I basically woke up with this song playing in my head) that they say “What more can I say?” Which is literally the song Marvin sang about how much he loves hiiimmmmm

And I mean, how can I reach tomorrow after being screwed out of today?

Aaaahh

They say good men get better with age - we’re just gonna skip that stage AAAAAAAHHH!!

The whole song is beautiful but those are the lines that keep playing in my head the most

[alicenthighstower]

achilles & patroclus, the iliad

+

❝once, I heard that good men get better with age. we’re just gonna skip that stage.❞ ―william finn, falsettos