Winner of five Tony Awards - Closes September 10!
Fun Home is one of the most atypical new musicals playing on Broadway. Based neither on a movie or a fairytale, Fun Home instead takes its cues from the graphic novel of the same name by Alison Bechdel. Released in 2006, the book traces Bechdel's own childhood and adolescence, with particular focus on her uneasy relationship with her father Bruce and her coming out as a lesbian.
While the subject matter is emotionally fraught, Fun Home is imbued with warmth and generosity, along with wickedly sharp musical numbers. And if you need any concrete proof of its popularity, cast your eye over the awards the production has managed to accumulate thus far which include five Tony Awards, including wins for Best Musical and Best Original Score.
Broadway Transfer
With lyrics and book by Lisa Kron (Voyage to Lesbos) and music from Jeanine Tesori (Violet) Fun Home premiered at The Public Theater in 2013 and was lavished with critical acclaim. Ben Brantley of the New York Times hailed it as a "beautiful heartbreaker", with "multidimensional" characters who offered a refreshing change from musical's traditionally more showy portrayals. Returning to helm the Broadway transfer is original director Sam Gold, one of the most in demand directors both on and off-Broadway. This transfer also sees Tony winner Michael Cerveris return to the play, once again in the role of Bruce Bechdel, Alison Bechdel's father.
What is Fun Home About?
The musical traces the life of Alison Bechdel through three separate periods of her life, weaving scenes and conversations together into a non-linear patchwork. At the heart of Alison's story is her father Bruce, a domineering man who devotes the attention that he denies his children on decorating the Pennsylvania family home and maintaining his collection of antiques. Bruce killed himself soon after Alison came out as a lesbian during college, and looking back, she wonders what part this revelation played in her father's suicide, especially as it's revealed that he was gay himself, but had never been able to come out of the closet.