Welcome To Falsettoland Ends With “It’s About Time” Being Repeated With Increasing Intensity Until

Marvin's name

I was researching names and their meanings for a fic that I'm writing and I came across two things that i found highly interesting.

First, the name Marvin generally has two meanings: "sea friend" or "great lord". Any people well versed in In Trousers will immediately think of the Columbus theme and How America Got Its Name here, of course. With the amount of overcompenating grandiosity, the second one also feels fitting.

But that's not all. Apparently, in 1960s Britain, Marvin was actually slang.

Hank Marvin = Starving - “I'm completely Marvin.” Hank Marvin was a guitarist in popular band during the 1960s. Cockneys took a shine to his name, and now you can announce your levels of hunger by including Hank, Marvin, or Hank Marvin in a sentence.

Again, this was a thing in Britain. But considering that Marvin is a repressed gay man, desperate (one might say starving wink, wink) for love, not to mention How Marvin Eats His Breakfast, I find this both funny and fitting.

OH MY GOD ITS ACTUALLY OFFICIAL

hey here are some theories I made (to my knowledge, if you have a similar one feel free to compare :) ), copied from my notes app:

Four Jews and March of the Falsettos are from the perspective of Trina / are inside Trina’s head:

In both songs, the men are being immature, wearing costumes, and have very repetitive lyrics (“Bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch // funny, funny, funny, funny” and (“March, march, march of the Falsettos, March of the Falsettos”). Jason is portrayed as helpless/ needing Trina’s help (“In case of smoke please call our mothers on the phone…” and the covering of his eyes in MOTF, showing he is blind (or Trina what perceives him as) to the ‘struggles’/ problems in the family.

Marvin faked the STD’s (Love is Blind)

In In Trousers, Marvin, by Trina (or ‘Marvin’s Wife’, as she is referred to then), says “We lay in bed, he plays dead” so he doesn’t have time to have s3x with/ humour Trina.

In Love is Blind (MOTF), Marvin is said (again, by Trina, but also Marvin this time) to have syphillis and hepatitis, but in a following line she says “Which appears now… [hepatitis and syphillis are] …well forgotten” meaning that Trina herself never had them.

Now, that could be because Marvin used it to not have s3x in the first place, or that they did have s3x, and he used it as an excuse after to not do it again (going off of the line “I am probably diseased”). So, that means 1; that Trina never certainly knew that she had an STD (or two), or 2; she either didn’t go to the doctor, which doesn’t seem like, as they’re all described as neurotic — prone to worrying (especially considering my previous theory; Four Jews went on inside Trina’s head, the men say “we’re neurotic”, showing she also considers herself neurotic too). And so if she did go to the doctor, they didn’t find anything, because she isn’t certain. The doctors probably said to forget about it, or that’s how she interpreted her words, so she still had the inkling, but not the confirmation.

Chess — Whizzer; Queen to King

Whizzer is portrayed to resemble the queen when he and Marvin play chess, saying “I fear I’ve lost my head” used as an execution method for royalty (moreso queens), and picking up the queen instead of a pawn (this is important in my opinion because he could’ve picked up any other piece; a bishop, a rook, a knight, or even the king. I find it interesting that it was the Queen specifically).

Another thing to mention is that Whizzer is shown as the narrator (moreso in MOTF) and less of the family. He moves around the most, narrating in places that he isn’t physically in, instead metaphorically to narrate to the audience. A similarity to the Queen in chess; moving anywhere on the board, in any direction (besides the knight).

However, in act 2, when Whizzer falls ill, he stays on the hospital bed; in the hospital; in one place. In his solo (“You Gotta Die Sometime”), he moves from the bed, yes, into the chair; one square on the board. Like the King.

Cool thing I also found: in “The Chess Game”, Whizzer moves his h2 pawn to h4 and Marvin moves his h7 pawn to h5 :)

the falsettos protshot on youtube had the view count go up by 4k in one day and that will never not make me happy

my fuckinf joints bru

Since we're back here, can we get this revival back too?

Side note, I think this is the most serious, emotional, and opinionated I've ever seen Christian be.

Oh queer period pieces how I love thee

Ahem.

Fellow Travelers

The Marvin Trilogy

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Perfect Arrangement

Boys in the Band

Brokeback Mountain

girls will be like "omg that's literally me" and it's a gay man who dies

Sigh

I wish andrew rannells would come to *my* local mall and solve homophobia...

how am I following 151 falsettos people but have no friends that like it irl (one has watched it but nothing else 😔)