History Mr. Lapine directed the original 1992 Broadway production and is directing a revival scheduled to open Oct 27. His ties to the material go even further back — he directed two Off Broadway precursor shows, “March of the Falsettos,” in 1981, and “Falsettoland,” in 1990, that were combined to form the Broadway show; he wrote the book for “Falsettoland” and shares credit for the book of “Falsettos” with his collaborator William Finn. The writers won a Tony Award for best book in 1992.

Why do it again? “I went to see ‘The Normal Heart’ with my 23-year-old assistant, who said, ‘I know about AIDS, but was it really like this?’ I thought, ‘Oh boy, this is really a fading memory.’ We did talk about some other directors, but nobody else seemed right, and it became old home week.”

How do you keep it fresh? “It was a very long time ago — basically I don’t remember anything. For this production, I have brought on the talented choreographer Spencer Liff, who had never seen the show and also has the advantage of being very young.”

How have you changed?“I’m approaching it now as a man in his 60s, versus a guy in his 30s. At that time, those characters were us. Now I’m someone much older, looking back at people of that age, so right off the bat your perspective has changed. And I was very new to the theater then — the obvious change is that now I have craft in ways that I didn’t then.”

How have we changed? “Time has changed the world outlook on some of these issues, and that will be interesting, to see how it plays.”

Challenges “I’m most nervous about hearing from people who saw it the first time and can’t wait to see it again. It’s really hard to meet someone’s expectations.”