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William “Bill” Finn, the Tony Award-winning writer and composer of Falsettoshas died, his literary agent, Ron Gwiazda, told The Hollywood Reporter. He was 73. The cause of death was not immediately available.
Finn is well-known in the theater world for his autobiographical, moving and lyrically clever musicals, including Falsettos, for which he won 1992 Tonys for best original score and best book of a musical, with co-writer James Lapine. The production combined two shorter musicals he had penned (March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland) into one story following Marvin and his boyfriend Whizzer, Marvin’s ex-wife Trina, their son and their psychiatrist, Mendel, that covered themes of love, family and sexual identity in the late 1970s into the 1980s.
The original Broadway production ran at the John Golden Theater in 1992 and a revival was staged on Broadway in 2016, with THR‘s review praising the continued relevance of the storyline and the song compositions, saying: “Delicate melodies surface like throwaways from more abstract compositions, and yet they linger on in the head, often blending jauntiness with sorrow. The lyrics make you constantly marvel at the ability to combine clever humor, complex phrasing and searing tenderness.”
His musical, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, which follows the inner thoughts of the child competitors, played by adults, in a fictional spelling bee, ran on Broadway in 2005. The musical, which also involves audience participation, was nominated for six Tony s and saw the early star rises of Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Celia Keenan-Bolger. It went on to national tour and several subsequent productions, including a 2024 revival at the Kennedy Center.
As a writer and composer, Finn did not shy away from darker themes, including with his song cycle Elegieswhich featured songs about friends dying from AIDS as well as a response to the Sept. 11 attacks.
Finn’s musical A New Brain was a more autobiographical take on the composer and lyricist’s experience with brain surgery after the discovery of an arteriovenous malformation in his brain stem. The musical follows a songwriter grappling with the possibility of death, while worrying that he won’t be able to finish his work and balancing his relationship with his partner. The musical premiered off-Broadway in 1998 with Malcolm Gets, Kristin Chenoweth and Chip Zien and was revived in 2015 at City Center Encores! Off-Broadway, starring Jonathan Groff.
