#what would i do falsettos

[leidraws]

do you ever think about how, in what would i do, whizzer doesnt join marvin when he sings “how am i to face tomorrow” but joins in “after being screwed out of today?” because they were both screwed out of today (whizzer literally, marvin metaphorically) but whizzer wont face tomorrow ever again, whereas marvin has to face tomorrow, but doesnt know if he can without whizzer by his side? do you ever think about that? i do. i do a lot

[galaxytoons]

I definitely did NOT watch a bootleg falsettos today because bootlegs are BAD and EVIL. anyways I just cried have a drawing

[sstardustt3]

Star yaps abt what would i do from falsettos

(copy and pasted from her school paper…)

Over the course of the year I’ve had many obsessions (ranging through days to months) and my current one being from June, Falsettos by William Finn and by extension entire Marvin trilogy. If I could explain why I love this musical and all my thoughts on it I would but today I would like to focus on one in particular “what would I do?” The final of the song (or second depending on if you count Falsettoland reprise as a song).

The song begins after Jason’s bar mitzah; where whizzer after thanking Jason turns away and goes limp. From there he is carried off and the hospital room is stripped away and it is just Marvin alone standing in the same position to reflect.

Now this shot alone says so much. The set of falsettos is made mostly out of grey foam blocks that are made to represent Marvin’s mind state and I think by having everything stripped away shows how Marvin is mentally. He’s alone, he hasn’t moved on from where he was when whizzer died, he can’t. And for the audience it helps set in stone the reality of the situation and it stings.

In the religion of Judaism (which I’m not Jewish but the characters are so I think it’s important to mention but again I may be wrong ) it says that everyone, both good and bad gets what they deserve in the end. Even with that ideology he still feels robbed, and that whizzer died young and unfairly.

According to the World national heath organization people would die only weeks or months from their diagnosis. Assuming that whizzer died closer to the weeks mark it would’ve made less time to really grasp the situation even more so that AIDS wasn’t something with a lot of information. There was no real explanation to the violent death that killed his lover.

A very important fact is that whizzer is Marvin’s first real love. Marvin’s main issue and arch in the trilogy is that he can’t figure out love properly. He tries to love his sweetheart, but only ends up putting her on a pedestal and neglecting her. He thinks he loves ms. Goldberg but only an idealized version of her. He tries to learn to love Trina romantically but can’t bring himself to and ends up neglecting her. Whizzer is the first person he truly loves.

So he wonders to himself if he was never in his life, what would happen? Who would he blame everything that happened on? Whizzer states that he ruined the life Marvin had. Which is technically true.

If Marvin had never met whizzer he wouldn’t have cheated and he wouldn’t have gotten a divorce. If he never got a divorce Trina wouldn’t have went to Mendel (Marvin’s therapist) and they wouldn’t have gotten engaged. If Trina and Mendel never got engaged then Marvin wouldn’t have hit Trina in a fit of rage and hit her in front of Jason and he wouldn’t have seen how wrong he has been and how much he is hurting everyone around him especially Jason who he cares most about and been pushed to change.

Whizzer, who comes out later in this song about halfway through as what I believe to be a further representation of Marvin’s mental state; asks if Marvin regrets the time he spent with him and all he went through to hold him and Marvin says if he could he’d do it again. Which is in reference to a song earlier “love is blind” where at the end Marvin speaks on his of love. That it being messy and dysfunctional and something to never even consider doing over again and it shows how much Marvin has really grown and learned that love doesn’t have to be toxic and painful.

Another thing to be noted is that whizzer comes out in a white button up and brown pants like he had on at the start of act 1 except the shirt is white and not green. What I think this is meant to show is that Marvin is slowly forgetting details about whizzer which supports the idea that most people agree on that Marvin also has aids and dies soon after the ending since memory loss is a symptom of dementia which sometimes a result of aids.

Going back to an earlier point of Marvin and his grief he asks himself how could he move on? How could he face the future without him? Especially knowing that he’d most likely die the same way whizzer did. He wishes whizzer was there with him which is why whizzer shows up halfway through. He wishes whizzer was there with him to live a much longer life and talk to him. Whizzer died young and unfairly and so will he and they’ll never have the chance to better themselves.

The song closes with Marvin recognizing that there are no definitive answers and all he can do is wonder what could have been.

[chelldoscocaine]

i never wanted til death do we two part

[eddiediazismyhusband]

going on my falsettos/buddie shit for a second, but the song “What Would I Do” is soooooo buddie after one of them is in an accident and they don’t know if they’re gonna make it, like—

like im imagining eddie singing this to buck after the lightning strike when he was sobbing in that hospital room while Buck was in a coma

for any of my fellow musical theater stans that happen to also be in the 911 fandom i HIGHLY recommend the falsettos 2016 revival cast recording… it will rip your heart out, stomp on it, put it back in, rip it out again, and tear it to pieces (it also has tracie thoms playing a badass lesbian doctor so what other convincing do you need??)

[notreallysurreal]

[mochii-derogatory]

ive been watching the dog motif show... why is no one talking about this guy. isaac lahey come home from france,,,, sweet boy,,,, we miss you,,,

[miriam-theatrekid]

SORRY, I NEEDED TO DO THIS

[haveyoueverlivedwithspiders]

[m0nomercy]

What would I do

[elposting]

every single time i listen to what would i do? i burst out into tears at “i guess we’ll just skip that stage” ive been listening to falsettos for god knows how long and I STILL CRY help

[sstardustt3]

Since I decided to chose “what would I do?” from falsettos as a song to do for my English project I may or may not just post my full analysis on here idk but lmk if y’all fw it

[tenracoonsinacrisis]

"You're the only one, one out of a thousand others, only one my child would allow." i think whizzer was marvin's first dip in homosexuality so in the time between Act 1 and Act 2 did marvin try to replace whizzer and jason just go no or something?

"Hey Jason, this is-" "No"

[t1redallthetime]

Been thinking about ‘What would I do’ a lot recently and I’ve thought about something

At the end when Marvin calls Whizzer his friend multiple times people say it’s cause he values him as a friend first and lover second, my thought is so much sadder, basically I think the end of the song is almost public in a way, and since homosexuality wasn’t widely accepted Marvin had call Whizzer his friend hiding their relationship from a unaccepting world.

Sorry if this doesn’t make sense I’ve just been thinking about it lol

[shyshyaaaaaa]

helloooo falsettos fandom,, i have risen once more,, kinda

I REWATCHED IT W A FRIEND AND REMEMBERED WHY I LOVE THIS MUSICAL SO IM KINDA ON THE FALSETTOS HYPE TRAIN RN. but im also still way obsessed with jekyll and hyde so dont worry gang :3

URGH I LOVE THIS MUSICAL

(a bonus drawing cuz why not!!)

my baby boy

[a-three-part-mini-opera]

i don't think you understand how happy musicals make me. (except for falsettos, stop making me sad)