Favorite Characters: Whizzer (Falsettos)

Even though Whizzer is very present throughout Falsettos and he/his relationships with other characters is integral to the plot, he’s definitely the character from the core five (I’m not counting Charlotte and Cordelia, who don’t appear until Act II) that we know the least about.  While Marvin, Trina, Jason, and Mendel all explain their problems and feelings to each other or the audience on a regular basis, we don’t get as much on Whizzer.  Still, he’s an interesting character whose incorporation into the other characters’ lives fuels a lot of the story (spoilers.)

Our clearest view into Whizzer is through the eyes of other characters.  We see how Trina and Jason react to Whizzer’s introduction into the family, Marvin’s “tight-knit” arrangement whereby they all fitfully coexist.  What I like about this is that, uneasy as Trina and Jason are about these matters, they don’t usually direct their frustrations about it toward Whizzer.  Trina admits, “I wanna hate him, but I really can’t,” and Jason seems to have a relatively good step-parent/step-child relationship with Whizzer, despite Jason’s complicated feelings about his dad being gay; Jason even keeps in touch with Whizzer early in Act II when he and Marvin are still broken up.

This shows that, whatever is going on within the family (or more accurately, however badly Marvin is mishandling the situation,) Whizzer himself isn’t a problem.  That’s a big deal and says a lot about him as a character.  Even though he’s the man Marvin “ran off with” and the most tangible reason for Marvin and Trina’s divorce – in a time and place where same-sex relationships were commonly considered much more “scandalous” than they are today – Jason still likes him and Trina concedes that he’s “not so bad.”

But of course, it’s with Marvin that we get our largest second-hand view into Whizzer.  It’s there that we get a general sense of who Whizzer is as a person.  In talking about Falsettos, I spend a lot of time on Marvin’s flaws, but Whizzer demonstrates his own prettily handily as well.  When he resents Marvin treating him like a frivolous pretty-boy, Whizzer responds by leaning into that notion harder, claiming to only care about sex and money.  In every fight, Whizzer’s go-to move is to make light of it, to be casually dismissive and make little digs about how much he doesn’t care.  He knows how attractive he is and can use that to get his way, and even though he loves Marvin, he often responds to whatever more vulnerable overtures Marvin makes by brushing them off.

This is a quality Whizzer uses as a defense mechanism, deflecting Marvin’s jibes so they can’t hurt him, and it’s a tactic he employs on himself as well.  Like I said, we mostly see Whizzer from other characters’ points of view, but there are two songs in the show that place Whizzer’s thoughts/feelings center stage, and both of them cement the idea of Whizzer using false bravado in an attempt to protect himself.  First, in “The Games I Play,” he looks at his break-up with Marvin and, over the course of the song, becomes gradually less and less detached.  He tries to keep things shallow, inconsequential, at arm’s length, nothing but “games” as he makes excuses and refuses to apologize, but he can’t keep it up.  By the middle of the song, he’s admitting that love is tough, and by the end, he confesses how much it hurts trying not to love Marvin, how he struggles with Marvin’s lingering ties with Trina, and how he needs Marvin despite not wanting to.

His song in Act II, “You Gotta Die Sometime,” is a similar failed attempt at detachment, this time about his AIDS diagnosis and impending death.  While Whizzer is a little more forthcoming here, demanding to know, “Why me of all men?” and lamenting the unfairness of life and death, he still tries to be cavalier about it.  “Screw the nerves - / I’ll be eating hors d’euorves,” he declares.  It’s not until the end that his palpable fear and anguish becomes apparent, as he repeats his “you gotta die sometime” mantra over and over in increasingly desperate attempts to convince himself he’s not terrified.  It’s wrenching to watch Whizzer’s feigned detachment fail him, to give into those feelings he’s been running from.  But as with “The Games I Play,” it’s so cathartic, too, that he’s finally able to drop that act with himself if not with others.