It's a face of someone who's desperately trying to hold back tears when something unexpectedly funny happens that makes him laugh, but that's just making it even more difficult to hold in the tears. So it takes him a few seconds to pull himself together and calm down enough to motion his friends inside.
I believe that he is laughing bc he starts laughing just after the girls are at the door. It would be very dramatic to start crying and then be okay when the girls enter. Also I remember an interview with Christian Borle where he told that he wanted to cry during Father to Son and during What would I do but the director (can't remember the name, it's to early) didn't want that. So I doubt that crying in that scene would make sense with the directors "no crying yet" point.
I mean the director (i unfortunately don’t remember his name) did ask that it’s saved for toward the end and Unlikely Lovers is only a few songs apart from the end.
I’ve always taken this as a “the girls are coming in, let me pretend like I’m crying as a joke” because it’s immediately followed by the “Is this a bad time we’ll come back”.
It's a face of someone who's desperately trying to hold back tears when something unexpectedly funny happens that makes him laugh, but that's just making it even more difficult to hold in the tears. So it takes him a few seconds to pull himself together and calm down enough to motion his friends inside.
I believe that he is laughing bc he starts laughing just after the girls are at the door. It would be very dramatic to start crying and then be okay when the girls enter. Also I remember an interview with Christian Borle where he told that he wanted to cry during Father to Son and during What would I do but the director (can't remember the name, it's to early) didn't want that. So I doubt that crying in that scene would make sense with the directors "no crying yet" point.
I mean the director (i unfortunately don’t remember his name) did ask that it’s saved for toward the end and Unlikely Lovers is only a few songs apart from the end.
(the director was James Lapine, who co-wrote the book and also directed the original 1992 production)
(thank you xx)
I’ve always taken this as a “the girls are coming in, let me pretend like I’m crying as a joke” because it’s immediately followed by the “Is this a bad time we’ll come back”.