Life Cycle

by Steve Cohen

theater

When William Finn's musical, A New Brain, had a workshop reading at Lincoln Center in 1997, the author/composer's mother was beaming in the audience. Barbara Cohen Finn was happy to see her son's work, especially because A New Brain was about a man who survived brain surgery, just as Finn had, and his mother was a character in the play. A year later she died from pulmonary thrombosis a week before the show opened. Finn wrote a song about her, "The Day the Earth Stopped Turning," which is filled with gratitude and joy as well as grief.

Meanwhile, a close friend of the Finns was dying, and she asked to have one of Finn's songs from his Falsettos (which won Tony Awards for best score and best book in 1992) played at her funeral. Finn, instead, wrote a new piece for her, "Anytime."

It was in these situations that Elegies, a song cycle that has its Philadelphia premiere March 18 by the Philadelphia Theatre Company, had its beginnings. The subject is people who are gone, but the tone is loving and hopeful, even witty. Several of the numbers are hilarious. The cast includes Michael Rupert, who starred in the original New York productions of Falsettos and Elegies.

It certainly is Finn's most personal composition. "Looking in the window, I see my reflections in their faces," he told City Paper last week, paraphrasing one of his songs. "I'm prouder of this than any other show," Finn says. "Nothing I've written represents me so well. I rose to the occasion." In addition to remembering individuals, Elegies ends with recollections of 9/11, "Looking Up."

At 6 feet 3 inches, bearded and imposingly handsome, Finn cautions that his first-person songs can't be taken as literally autobiographical. "I write from a very personal place. My songs are emotionally true but not necessarily biographically true." The composer will attend the Sunday, April 3, performance and talk with the audience. Meanwhile, his latest show, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, is currently an off-Broadway hit about to transfer to the Main Stem next month.

Elegies: A Song Cycle, Fri.-Sat., March 18-19, 8 p.m.; Sun., March 20, 3 p.m.; Tue., March 22, 8 p.m.; Wed., March 23, 7 p.m.; through April 17, $30-$45, Philadelphia Theatre Company at Plays & Players, 1714 Delancey St., 215-985-0420, www.phillytheatreco.com. American Playwrights in Context: PTC dramaturg Warren Hoffman in discussion with Finn, Sun., April 3, after 3 p.m. performance.