StageQ, Inc. a local not-for-profit theater company announces its concert production of the musical Falsettos by William Finn and James Lapine, directed by Greg Harris, with music direction by Audrey Highton. The show opens Friday, January 12, 2007 and runs through Saturday, February 3 at the Bartell Theatre at 113 E. Mifflin Street in Madison.

A Jewish matron sits in the stands watching her son play baseball, then looks over in consternation at a new arrival in the crowd and croons to herself, ''Just what I wanted at a Little League game -- my ex-husband's ex- lover. Isn't that what every mother dreams of?'' Falsettos expresses edgy wit, cockeyed charm and matter-of-fact acceptance of a world Norman Rockwell never painted. Handsome men in sports clothes and sweatbands play racquetball, snorting like stags in battle, then sing love songs to each other. A female doctor and her lover, a would-be inventor of nouvelle kosher cuisine, cheerily introduce themselves as ''the lesbians from next door.'' The matron's husband, and surrogate father to her son, is the ex-husband's ex-psychiatrist. The shrink and the boy do a vaudeville-inspired soft-shoe number called Everyone Hates His Parents. The mother probably speaks for a whole generation or two when she describes her occupation in life as ''holding to the ground as the ground keeps shifting.''

The play is a study in contradictions: a laugh-a-minute musical -- about families dealing with AIDS; a tragedy filled with hope. ''More powerful than any other American musical of its day,'' raved The New York Times' finicky Frank Rich. Falsettos waltzed home with a couple of Tony Awards.

The StageQ staged concert production features Bruce Wheeler as Marvin, Joe Hammes as Whizzer, Audrey Highton as Trina, Bob Moore as Mendel, Simon Frost as Jason, Louise Stout as Cordelia and Tara Ayres as Charlotte.

Performances of Falsettos are:

• Friday, January 12, 2007, 8 pm

• Saturday, January 13, 8 pm

• Friday, January 19, 8 pm

• Saturday, January 20, 8 pm

• Friday, January 26, 8 pm

• Saturday, January 27, 8 pm

• Sunday, January 28, 2 pm

• Thursday, February 1, 7:30 pm

• Friday, February 2, 8 pm

• Saturday, February 3, 8 pm

Tickets are $10 for Sunday and Thursday; $15 for Friday and Saturday. Tickets are available on-line or may be reserved by calling 608-661-9696, ext 3.