The 1992 work, with music and lyrics by Finn and a libretto by Finn and Lapine, is a through-sung chamber musical about the dawning of the AIDS era, circa 1980-81, and the disease's effect upon the new, "alternative" families formed by gay men who married women and had children before separating and taking gay partners.

Finn and Lapine's originality paid off, for "Falsettos" nabbed Tony Awards for Best Score and Best Book of a Musical. In telling the tale of a gay Jewish man and his extended family, "Falsettos" shows how specific people and situations can, and often do, have universal meaning.

At Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse, that meaning comes through loud and clear, thanks to a clean, simple and forthright staging by Kyle Myers. "Falsettos" is a tender, funny treatment of potentially dark subjects, and actor-director Myers and his cast prove skilled at the unique subgenre of theater the work represents, and at expressing its seriocomic tone.

Myers plays Marvin, whose family includes his ex-wife, Trina (Cathy Petz), and their adolescent son, Jason (Paul Pakler); Marvin's gay lover, Whizzer (Christopher Diehl); Marvin's faithful shrink, Mendel (Joaquin Nunez); and Whizzer's lesbian doctor (Janet McGregor) and her life partner (Jennifer Bridge).

Each of these characters struggles to find a place in a world of gay and lesbian couples now forced to deal with the specter of AIDS. As Marvin and Trina's lives are intertwined, as Jason finds Whizzer a better friend than his own parents, and as Mendel and Trina wed, a new family is born. Their lives, though, are colored with ambiguity - even the supremely blithe Mendel is made to deal with uncertainty.

As in opera, the characters express affection, jealousy, rage and other complex emotions entirely in song. The light rock-music score includes "What More Can I Do," a tender, expressive ballad by Marvin; Trina's bitter burlesque parody "I'm Breakin' Down"; and "Everyone Hates His Parents," a charming number typical of the show's thematic universality where a sympathetic Mendel counsels new stepson Jason.

Justin Pyne's musical direction and accompaniment are distinctly lyrical yet smoothly unobtrusive, and many a lyric is pungent: Marvin sings that "Love is spiteful in a million ways," while Trina is "holding to the ground as the ground keeps shifting," realizing the utter truth in the seeming cliche "Life is never what you plan."

In a cast notable for assured vocal work, Myers and Diehl are particularly solid.

Myers shows Marvin's roiling passions, both inner and external. As Whizzer's feelings toward Marvin are ever-shifting, turbulence is etched on Diehl's sensitive face. Also notable is Pakler's Jason, an exceptionally bright boy preparing for his bar mitzvah. Resembling a junior Bill Gates, Pakler expresses something every teen can relate to: frustration toward his parents' selfishness.

Finn based "Falsettos" on two previous musicals he wrote in the late '80s - "March of the Falsettos" and "Falsettoland" - yet the true meaning of the show's title is left vague and undefined. Finn's lyrics, though, and the situations his characters endure, tell all. The song line "Who is man enough to march the March of the Falsettos?" leaves little doubt that Finn believes it takes true grit to own up to, and live openly with, being gay.