 The first act, "March of the Falsettos", was originally intended to be titled "Four Jews in a Room Bitching" until Lapine insisted that Finn change the title.Writers Raymond and Zelda Knapp compared the implications of the AIDS epidemic in "Falsettos" to the foreshadowing of the Holocaust in the 1964 Jewish musical "Fiddler on the Roof", noting that both works suggest the "comparatively innocent" atmosphere before tragedy and the "grim" environment afterward.Jason's bar mitzvah is a major plot point and accentuates the theme of the male characters maturing and becoming men.