Songs for the Departed
William Finn has at least two musicals in limbo: the stalled Muscle and the forever-in-development The Royal Family. But, recently, New Yorkers had the opportunity to hear a new song cycle by the composer/lyricist of the revered Falsettos trilogy. Lincoln Center Theater, which presented Finn’s A New Brain in 1998, hosted Elegies: A Song Cycle this past Spring for a brief hit run of Sunday and Monday performances. The cycle, which includes Finn songs both new and old, was recorded and has just been released by Fynsworth Alley.
The “old” songs (“The Ballad of Jack Eric Williams,” “Infinite Joy,” “When the Earth Stopped Turning,” and “Anytime”) on the CD are not that old, and you’ve probably only heard them if you attended one of Finn’s recent Joe’s Pub concerts or own the Infinite Joy album (though that live recording of songs performed at the Pub concerts scandalously omitted “Jack Eric Williams”). These four numbers plus 14 others make up Elegies, and they all have one theme: death. Hence the title of the cycle, yet the enterprise isn’t nearly so dreary as you might think. In fact, the CD boasts many buoyant tunes like “Joe Papp” and “Peggy Hewitt and Mysty Del Giorno” that are, as people tend to say about funerals, more a celebration of the deceased’s life than a mourning of his or her passing.
Most of the songs are classic Finn, notable for their hilarious specificity and bizarre yet effective rhyme schemes; “Mark’s All-Male Thanksgiving,” track #3 on the disc, is a perfect example. It provides something of a through-line for the cycle, as we are reunited with characters we meet in the song (including Finn, a frequent participant in his own songs) later on in “Monica & Mark” and “Venice.” The last handful of songs on the disc deal movingly with two tragedies: that of a mother and son as they face her death, and the events of September 11.
Finn’s brilliance lies in the astonishing uniqueness of his storytelling voice — his real voice, which can be heard on the Infinite Joy CD, is also unique! — coupled with his lovely, rambling melodies. To be effective, his work absolutely requires the talents of great musicians and singers. With Elegies, he’s fortunate to have both in musical director/pianist Vadim Feichtner and a sterling cast of five actor/singers: Christian Borle, Betty Buckley, Carolee Carmello, Keith Byron Kirk, and Michael Rupert.
Lincoln Center Theater’s Elegies
People who loved Elegies in the theater (and I’ve yet to meet anyone who didn’t) should know that a couple of songs were left off of the disc; their loss is unfortunate but not disastrous. One was Borle’s rendition of the phenomenally odd “Fred” and the other was the Buckley/Carmello duet “Dear Reader.” Fortunately, all of the best numbers are preserved, from Kirk’s nostalgiac “Mister Choi & Madame G” to Carmello’s stirring “Anytime” and Buckley and Borle’s “14 Dwight Ave., Natick, Massachusetts,” which kicks off the final sequence. Personally, I enjoy the lighthearted-yet-poignant numbers best of all, particularly “The Ballad of Jack Eric Williams (and Other 3-Named Composers)” and the jaunty “Joe Papp.” (A sample lyric from the latter: “I never understood what Joe was sayin’ to me / He’d quote Shakespeare and I’d simply nod / Is this how the prophets felt in the presence of God?”)
From the wordless, soaring “Looking Up” quintet that starts the cycle to the “Goodbye” finale, Finn’s songs have been well preserved on disc — though, inevitably, they lack some of the punch that they had in a live setting. Onstage, the comically-adept cast members got more mileage out of such songs as Buckley’s “Only One,” the impassioned final statement of an English teacher; Carmello’s neurotic remembrance of “Passover”; and “My Dogs,” Borle’s darkly funny recounting of his many dead pets. And though Feichtner’s piano playing is excellent, one does sometimes long to hear more instruments accompanying the singers.
The CD’s slight booklet doesn’t include Finn’s lyrics, which is a shame, but the singers’ diction is generally good enough that one rarely feels the need for such reference material anyway. What is included, in addition to an introductory note by LCT artistic director André Bishop and photos of each of the five cast members, is a “Who’s Who” section with info on some of the people whose names Finn throws around in his songs, such as Mark Thalen (“a socially conscious lawyer”) and Peggy Hewitt (“a popular character actress”). This useful little glossary is a nice touch.
Like Infinite Joy, Elegies proves that Finn doesn’t need a libretto to tell a good story; his songs are short plays in themselves. All the same, here’s hoping that he gives us another show soon. In the meantime, Elegies offers plenty to mourn and plenty to enjoy.
