 She viewed the first half as more complex than the second, which she described as "more conventional, its narrative arc familiar, its characterizations less intense, particularly those of the lesbians".Jesse Green of Vulture.com described the ending as "almost unbearably moving".Chris Jones of "The Chicago Tribune" wrote that "Falsettos" "throbs with passion and compassion, a masterwork strong enough to bare formative comparison to the work of Stephen Sondheim, but a whole lot more cuddly of a show".