Memorial for Composer William Finn: Infinite Joy

PITTSFIELD, MASS. — On the night of Tuesday, Aug, 17, Barrington Stage in Pittsfield, Mass. held a memorial celebration for theater composer William Finn. Finn died April 7 following an illness. He was 73.

It was apt that the celebration was held here in the Massachusetts Berkshires, a place where Finn went to college, developed many of his works, mentored others and lived for a period of time.

Finn had an especially close relation ship with Barrington Stage and its longtime artistic director Julianne Boyd. It was at a small school auditorium in Great Barrington — where the theater company resided during its early days — that Finn premiered “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.” It was a musical that would be his most popular show. My Variety theater review when it had its world premiere.

Finn later created the Musical Theatre Lab (MTL) at Barrington Stage which was a developmental programs for emerging musical theatre writers.

Featured at the event were Chip Zien, Mary Testa, Tony Award-winning composer Will Aronson (“Maybe Happy Ending”), Tony Award-winning composer Michael R. Jackson (“A Strange Loop”), Tony Award winner Rachel Sheinkin, Tony Award-nominee Taylor Trensch, Lisa Howard, Adam Chanler-Berat, composer Chris Miller, Alan H. Green, Niko Tsakalakos, Sam Salmond, Dorcas Leung, with video appearance by James Lapine, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Alison. Frasier and others.

The show opened with Chanler-Berat singing “I’m Not That Smart” followed by Leung singing “The I Love You Song,” both from “Spelling Bee.”

Zien was a highlight singing “How Marvin Eats His Breeakfast” from “In Trousers,” and “My Last House.”

Testa sang “Change” from “A New Brain,” and an early son g by Finn, “Order.”Composer sang “Disappear,” and Green was stunning in “Sailing.”

Tsakalakos sang a song he created as an assignment where Finn taught as NYC, “Uncle Arthur.” Ditto from Jackson who sang “Old Mr. Drew.” Feichtner performed a song he wrote that had Finn’s blessing: “So This Guy Was Climbing Up a Mountain.”

Trensch and Salmond performed “In the Temple;” and Berat led an energized “And They’re Off” with Audrey Adji, Griffin Parrow and Malia Smaha, who are part of MTC Ensemble. Aaronson and Leung sang “How Not To Be Alone” from “Maybe Happy Ending.” Trensch was a standout in “Mark’s All Male Thanksgiving” from “Elegies.”

The show ended with Howard singing “Infinite Joy” from “Elegies.”

Finn was born and raised in Natick, Mass. (not far from where I grew up in Maynard, which may have been one the reasons I related to his background). Finn attended Williams College in Williamstown, Mass, a short drive north from Pittsfield. Williams College was also where Stephen Sondheim went to school 20 years earlier. Like Sondheim, Finn received the Hutchinson Fellowship. Finn’s first show, “Sizzle,” was produced at the college in 1971, making it the first original musical to be produced there since Sondheim.

Finn's longtime partner, Arthur Salvadore,

Finn received two Tony Awards: for best score and book of a musical for “Falsettos.

His made am impressive mark off-Broadway with a trilogy of short musicals that followed the story of a gay man named Marvin, his lover Whizzer, Marvin’s ex-wife Trina, their son Jason, and their psychiatrist Dr. Mendel. “In Trousers” written in the late ‘70s, “ March of the Falsettos” in 1981 and “Falsettoland, “ in 1990 (which dealt with the AIDS crisis).

Hartford Stage first combined the latter two shows into one work: ““Falsettos,” directed by Graciele Daniele. That concept was later taken and produced on Broadway ion a show directed by James Lapine who staged the earlier off-Broadway productions. “Falsettos” was revived, again staged by Lapine, in 2016. A filmed performance has since been commercially released and broadcast on PBS.

Finn’s Broadway debut came solely as a lyricist to Astor Piazzolla ‘s music for thge short-lived 1989 show “Dangerous Games.”

Finn and Lapine collaborated in 1998’s off-Broadway musical “A New Brain,” loosely based on his near-death experience following brain surgery and a potentially terminal arteriovenous malformation (AVM). Finn has produced three musical revues: “Infinite Joy,” “Elegies: A Song Cycle”, and “Make Me a Song,” tghe latter p[remieroing at TheaterWorks Hartford. Finn also wrote the musicals “Little Miss Sunshine,” which had an off Broadway run in 2023. His last musical, “The Royal Family of Broadway,” had a run at Barrington Stage in 2018.