William Finn | |
|---|---|
 Finn in 2016 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | (1952-02-28)February 28, 1952 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | April 7, 2025(2025-04-07) (aged 73) Bennington, Vermont, U.S. |
| Genres | Musical theater |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1971–2018 |
William Alan Finn (February 28, 1952 – April 7, 2025) was an American composer and lyricist. He was best known for his musicals, which includeFalsettos, for which he won the 1992Tony Awards forBest Original Score andBest Book of a Musical,A New Brain (1998), andThe 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (2005).
Finn was born inBoston, Massachusetts, on February 28, 1952.[1] He was Jewish,[2] raised inconservative Judaism,[3] and grew up inNatick, Massachusetts, with his parents and siblings, Michael and Nancy. He attended the Temple Israel in Natick, where his rabbi wasHarold Kushner. InHebrew school, Finn wrote his first play, and said, "I don't think I ever told anyone this: The first play I ever wrote was inHebrew. I have no idea what it was about. But it was horrible, I guarantee it. I couldn't write plays, and I couldn't really speak Hebrew, so how good could it be?"[3] While attendingNatick High School, Finn competed with the Natick Speech Team and was in the drama department headed by Gerald Dyer.[4] For hisbar mitzvah, he received a guitar and taught himself to play.[5]
He went on to attendWilliams College inWilliamstown, Massachusetts, as a music major.[1] He originally entered as a guitar major, "When I got to college I kind of transferred to the piano. I transferred what I knew on the guitar to the piano. But when I was playing the guitar I was always writing my own songs — and singing a few of — I only had one book of folk songs, a blue book, of these sad, sad folk songs. ...I would start them the way they were written and then I would change them to how I wanted them.... I would just use the lyrics — re-musicalize the lyrics."[5] When he graduated, he received the Hutchinson Fellowship (a musical composition award).[6]
Finn was a heavily autobiographical writer; he always wrote his own lyrics. His topics included the gay and Jewish experiences in contemporary America, and also family, belonging, sickness, healing, and loss. According to a 2006 article, "The Washington Post called him 'the composer laureate of loss.'"[7]
Finn was especially noted for his work on what was to become a trilogy of short musicalsOff-Broadway.In Trousers,March of the Falsettos, andFalsettoland. All of them chronicle the lives of the character Marvin; his ex-wife, Trina; his boyfriend, Whizzer; hispsychiatrist, Mendel; and his son, Jason.[8]Falsettos, the combination of the latter two parts of his Marvin Trilogy (March of the Falsettos andFalsettoland), opened onBroadway at theJohn Golden Theater on April 29, 1992,[8] and ran for 486 performances. It went on to garner seven nominations at the46th Tony Awards, winning two: the 1992Tony Award for Best Original Score as well as the 1992Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical, the latter Finn shared withJames Lapine.
A critically acclaimed revival opened on September 29, 2016, at theWalter Kerr Theater and went on to garner five nominations at the71st Tony Awards, includingBest Revival.
With Lapine, Finn penned a musical loosely based on his near-death experience following brain surgery, exploring the role of music in his life and recovery. The musical's main character is a man who has what may be a terminal arteriovenous malformation (AVM). Finn's longtime partner, Arthur Salvadore, is represented by the character Roger Delli-Bovi. Finn's mother is also present in the piece.[7] That musical,A New Brain, starredMalcolm Gets,Kristin Chenoweth andChip Zien, and premiered at the thenOff-Broadway venue, theLincoln Center Theater in 1998.[9] The musical won the 1999Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Musical. The UK premiere was at the2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
At the 2006Elliot Norton Awards Ceremony, Finn brought his high school drama teacher, Gerry Dyer, onstage with him to present an award. Finn said of Dyer that he "imbued us with a ridiculous sense of our own self-worth."[10] Another student of Gerald Dyer,Alison Fraser, found fame on Broadway, collaborating with Finn in the original casts ofIn Trousers andMarch of the Falsettos.
Finn had another Broadway success withThe 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, for which he wrote both music and lyrics. The show won twoTony Awards in 2005-one forBest Book of a Musical, and another for theBest Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical. It ran Off-Broadway, then on Broadway in 2005[11] and toured the United States in 2006. The show was first workshopped and produced atBarrington Stage Company (BSC) in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where Finn later created The Musical Theatre Lab (MTL) with BSC Artistic DirectorJulianne Boyd. The MTL is an annual summer lab where emerging musical theatre artists are supported and new musical works are created, originally fine-tuned and produced under the curatorship of Finn and Boyd.[12]
Three musical revues or song suites of Finn's music have been produced:
Finn's first show was calledSizzle and was produced at Williams College in the fall of 1971. Finn wrote the music and lyrics, and his good friend, Charlie Rubin, wrote the libretto.Sizzle was the first original musical produced on the Williams College campus sinceStephen Sondheim attended the college over 20 years earlier.Sizzle was a coming of age musical about college students but concluded in an unusual way with the star of the show, played by J. Tyler Griffin, Jr., dying in an electric chair.Sizzle played to packed houses. Rubin possesses a reel-to-reel tape containing excerpts from the show, including most of the music.
Finn's songs were featured exclusively onLisa Howard's albumSongs of Innocence and Experience, released on April 12, 2011.[16]
The musical comedyLittle Miss Sunshine, premiered at theLa Jolla Playhouse, California, from February 15, 2011, through March 27, 2011. James Lapine wrote the book and was the director, set design by David Korins, staging by Lapine andChristopher Gattelli. The opening night cast featuredHunter Foster (Richard),Malcolm Gets (Frank),Dick Latessa (Grandpa),Taylor Trensch (Dwayne), Georgi James (Olive), andJennifer Laura Thompson (Sheryl).[17] The ensemble, who Jay Irwin wrote "...took the small parts they were given and ran with them, almost right out of the theater as each of them brilliantly played the comedic relief to the family's "straight man"", starredBradley Dean, Carmen Ruby Floyd, Eliseo Roman, Andrew Samonsky, Sally Wilfert, and Zakiya Young.[18]
Little Miss Sunshine began previewsOff Broadway at theSecond Stage Theatre in New York on October 15, 2013, and opened November 14, 2013.[19]
Finn's frequent collaborators includedlibrettistJames Lapine, directorGraciela Daniele and singers/actorsStephen Bogardus,Carolee Carmello,Stephen DeRosa,Alison Fraser,Keith Byron Kirk,Norm Lewis,Michael Rupert,Mary Testa,Christian Borle, andChip Zien.
Finn was one of a selected few composers who contributed to the song cycleStars of David which premiered in October 2012 at thePhiladelphia Theatre Company. It is based on theAbigail Pogrebin's bookStars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish and starred Nancy Balbirer,Alex Brightman, Joanna Glushak,Brad Oscar, andDonna Vivino.[20] Finn also contributed to the Off-Broadway musicalMama & her Boys.[21]
His long-in-development show,The Royal Family of Broadway, with a book byRichard Greenberg, is based on the play byGeorge S. Kaufman andEdna Ferber, which tells the story of a girl from a family of great Broadway actors who contemplates leaving show business and getting married. It apparently had been shelved according to Finn's personal notes forMake Me a Song,Playbill magazine and an article from 2006.[7][22] Notwithstanding, it saw its first full production in 2018 at theBarrington Stage Company withPutnam librettistRachel Sheinkin penning the book.[23][24]
Finn was gay, and lived with his life partner, Arthur Salvadore, in New York City[25] andPittsfield, Massachusetts.[1]
Finn was a member of theNYU Tisch Graduate Program in Musical Theater Writing faculty.[26] He was the co-founder and artistic producer of the Musical Theatre Lab at theBarrington Stage Company inPittsfield, Massachusetts, established in 2006.[27]
In 1992, Finn suffered deteriorating vision, dizziness and partial paralysis and was rushed to the hospital. He hadarteriovenous malformation, or AVM, in his brain stem. In September 1992, he hadGamma Knife surgery, which obliterated the AVM. After the surgery, Finn experienced a year of humble serenity and constantly felt like he had a "new brain." Finn's 1998 musicalA New Brain is based on his experience with AVM and his subsequent successful surgery.[7]
Finn died frompulmonary fibrosis at a hospital inBennington, Vermont, on April 7, 2025, at the age of 73.[1][28]
Notable Songs:
| Year | Association | Category | Nominated work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Drama Desk Award | Outstanding Music | Falsettoland | Won |
| Outstanding Lyrics | Won | |||
| 1992 | Tony Award | Best Book of a Musical | Falsettos | Won |
| Best Original Score | Won | |||
| 1999 | Drama Desk Award | Outstanding New Musical | A New Brain | Nominated |
| Outstanding Book of a Musical | Nominated | |||
| Outstanding Music | Nominated | |||
| Outstanding Lyrics | Nominated | |||
| 2005 | Tony Award | Best Original Score | The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee | Nominated |
| Drama Desk Award | Outstanding Music | Nominated | ||
| Outstanding Lyrics | Nominated |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Artists | |
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| Other | |