Is Fun Home too good for Broadway- Page 6

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/31/16 at 4:08pm

And what the f*ck does some writer for SALON have to do with FUN HOME?   

 

There is no pedophelia in FH.  NONE.  "Underage" does not = pedophelia.  There is no denying that Bruce is an troubled man...but he is not a pedophile.

[SweetLips]

Posted: 5/31/16 at 4:11pm

Having been a.......

Edited for my own peace of mind---sorry to those that might already have read my dribble--lack of early morning caffine [my excuse].

SL......x

Updated On: 5/31/16 at 04:11 PM

[undercoverusher]

Posted: 5/31/16 at 4:29pm

So an adult attracted to his underage students, just read details on the show. Sure.... that's lovely. I'm not the only one who is not thrilled with the subject.  I will pass

[hork]

Posted: 5/31/16 at 4:45pm

After Eight said: ""After Eight is mad that Jerry Herman isn't writing every show on Broadway and doesn't understand why people want something different."

 

I understand that the elitist arbiters of culture have had the power to impose their wants upon the rest of us. What everyone else wanted/wants is another matter entirely. But now it no longer matters what everyone else wanted/wants because the damage has already been done, and we just have to settle for what we've got. Sad, really, but then, no one ever said life was a bed of roses. Those of us who were fortunate enough to smell them while they were in bloom should be eternally grateful to have had that opportunity. I know I am.
 


Or maybe people just have different tastes than you. We get it, you like traditional, old-fashioned musicals, and that's fine. But that's simply not what the majority of modern audiences want. That's what old-fashioned means. You can sit around complaining that there are shows on Broadway that don't interest you, or you can just be thankful for the King and Is and She Loves Mes and Tuck Everlastings and so forth that you do get. With 40 theaters, there's room for all kinds. But there's no insidious plot going on, other than the same cultural progress and evolution that affects all art forms.

Updated On: 5/31/16 at 04:45 PM

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/31/16 at 4:48pm

It's not supposed to be "lovely".   It's a difficult story, to tell, to have, to see....but his dalliance with consenting teenagers is hardly the focal point of the show.  And as has been mentioned: no one thinks there is anything 'normal' or apologetic at all about his behavior.

 

Look, you have the choice to see or not see anything (except for Hamilton) but why bash a show you haven't even seen.  (and obviously know almost nothing about.)

[aaaaaa15]

Posted: 5/31/16 at 4:54pm

This person was defending American Psycho in another thread but has an issue with Fun Home's subject matter. I don't quite understand that.

[hork]

Posted: 5/31/16 at 4:57pm

Seriously, this is ridiculous. Nothing dealing with underage minors is ever shown. I think there's one verbal reference to some of his sexual partners being underage, but it condemns rather than condones this behavior. Unless you find Spotlight offensive because it deals with an uncomfortable subject, I don't see what there is to find objectionable about Fun Home.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 5/31/16 at 5:08pm

So an adult attracted to his underage students, just read details on the show. Sure.... that's lovely. I'm not the only one who is not thrilled with the subject.

You thought that was the subject of the show?  And your "friend" who "saw it" thought it condones pedophilia?  And that there is an agenda to condone pedophilia, including all theatre critics?  How long have you been addicted to crack?  Either you get your facts from the Million Moms blogosphere or you Trump up your own facts just to be incendiary because you don't actually know anything about it.  It's lunacy.  

[haterobics]

Posted: 5/31/16 at 5:35pm

undercoverusher said: "So an adult attracted to his underage students, just read details on the show. Sure.... that's lovely. I'm not the only one who is not thrilled with the subject.  I will pass"

You're certainly not an undercover moron.

[undercoverusher]

Posted: 5/31/16 at 5:43pm

In the interest of fairness , I  will read the book for which it is based on and try to catch the musical , than give you a fair analysis 

[haterobics]

Posted: 5/31/16 at 6:01pm

undercoverusher said: "In the interest of fairness , I  will read the book for which it is based on and try to catch the musical , than give you a fair analysis"

Maybe always do that?

[South Florida]

Posted: 5/31/16 at 7:35pm

You should try again as a new identity Usher.  Hate and Jordan thank you. Miss my guys.  You two and Growlie fill the void.

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 5/31/16 at 11:33pm

There has always been room for the commercial and non-commercial shows on Broadway. The commercial show has the longest run and brings in the most money, but pretty often the non-commercial show, like Fun Home, is the one that sticks in people's minds and is brought back for limited run revivals after the commercial show (although not its songs) has been forgotten.

The Gershwins had a big commercial hit in 1930 with Girl Crazy ("I've Got Rhythm," "But Not For Me," "Embraceable You". Five years later they must have looked nuts to bring to Broadway, in the middle of the Great Depression, a dark, three and a half hour Musical (or Opera - there was disagreement) which featured an almost all African-American cast in a dark story pitting genuine love against drugs and sexual desire.(or something like that).

It was a commercial flop, but who got the last laugh?

 

[After Eight]

Posted: 6/1/16 at 8:06am

"But that's simply not what the majority of modern audiences want."

Wants are created, wants are learned: An entire industry is based on that. Wants are also delimited by what one knows and what one is offered. If one doesn't know what chocolate mousse is, and there's none served, one isn't going to want it. One is going to want whatever glop is served so long as it fills the belly. And after a steady diet of glop, one would consider it the norm and of value, especially if the powers-that-be want you to eat it and proclaim it wonderful. The problem is, those of us  lucky enough to have enjoyed mousse and chateau d'Yquem on a daily basis know that glop and stale beer are a huge step down, and they just don't cut the mustard.

"That's what old-fashioned means."

Merit is everlasting. An eighteenth-century Sèvres plate is worth more than the paper covering a greasy hamburger.

"the same cultural progress and evolution that affects all art forms."

 Cultural  decay and devolution, inflicted upon us.

Going from lilac trees in "On the Street Where You Live" to Joan's ass in her Levi's is not progress. Going from "A Sleeping Bee" to ****ing frogs is not progress. It's going DOWN. Way, way, down.

 

[imeldasturn]

Posted: 6/1/16 at 8:32am

After Eight, can you list for us your favourite musicals?

[After Eight]

Posted: 6/1/16 at 8:39am

Imelda,

My Fair Lady, Hello, Dolly! , Mame, Dear World, The Sound of Music, No, No, Nanette, Whoopee, so many others... basically all the classics, and many musicals that few know nowadays.

[kdogg36]

Posted: 6/1/16 at 2:04pm

After Eight said: "Going from lilac trees in "On the Street Where You Live" to Joan's ass in her Levi's is not progress."

I don't know if "progress" is the most precise word here, but I do see this very example as an expansion of the topics that can be addressed in musical theater. I know you'll probably disagree that anything from the 21st century is as good as "On the Street Where You Live," but certainly there are songs similar in tone and content (for instance, "Passeggiata". On the other hand, no musical in the 1950s would would have even considered addressing incipient lesbian desire, which is valid territory to explore. 

I just don't see the polarity and the mutual exclusivity that you imply. I think it's a good thing that musicals can explore more things now than was possible in past decades. 

[hork]

Posted: 6/1/16 at 2:24pm

After Eight said: ""But that's simply not what the majority of modern audiences want."

Wants are created, wants are learned: An entire industry is based on that. Wants are also delimited by what one knows and what one is offered. If one doesn't know what chocolate mousse is, and there's none served, one isn't going to want it. One is going to want whatever glop is served so long as it fills the belly.

But what happens when mousse is served alongside the glop, and everyone chooses the glop? Maybe the glop isn't so bad. Maybe what's glop to you is ambrosia to other people. We obviously are offered mousse on a regular basis -- we've even got one of your favorite musicals coming next spring -- but sometimes people don't want mousse. They want flan, or creme brulee, or sticky toffee pudding. And that's okay, too. Sometimes they want a Fun Home but they don't want an On the Town. That's the business.

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 6/1/16 at 3:13pm

Let's say fun home closes in January. It would still have had a longer run than finding neverland and a similar run to something rotten. Both on paper should have already recouped and lasted years longer. Fun home is perfect the way it is and what it acheived is amazing and the fact that's it's heading out on an equity tour is amazing! This story and many like will continue be told as long as the fight for equality is still going and unless trump wins the presidency.

[undercoverusher]

Posted: 6/1/16 at 3:58pm

Right.... Trump hates gays....... You're delusional

[After Eight]

Posted: 6/1/16 at 11:54pm

"But what happens when mousse is served alongside the glop, and everyone chooses the glop?"

Then we're in a really bad way. Actually, I explained this to you in my previous post. Reread it if interested.

"Maybe the glop isn't so bad. "

Oh yes it is.

"Maybe what's glop to you is ambrosia to other people."

Here's to their delusions, then. And to their indoctrinators, too.They've done a bang-up job. Actually, I explained all of this to you in my previous post. Reread it if interested.

"We obviously are offered mousse on a regular basis"

In the world of your imagination, perhaps; certainly not in the real one. I'm talking about new shows here, not those that are over 50 years old. 

"sometimes people don't want mousse. They want flan, or creme brulee, or sticky toffee pudding."

They're out of luck, then, in every case.

 

 

[hork]

Posted: 6/2/16 at 12:34am

After Eight said: ""But what happens when mousse is served alongside the glop, and everyone chooses the glop?"

Then we're in a really bad way. Actually, I explained this to you in my previous post. Reread it if interested.
 

No, you didn't. You said there's no mousse being served, I'm saying ... aw, forget it.

It must be hard being the only person in the world with good taste.

[After Eight]

Posted: 6/2/16 at 5:59am

" forget it."

Yes, let's.

"It must be hard being the only person in the world with good taste."

Even if I were, it wouldn't be hard. There are many areas in which one can derive happiness and enrichment that have nothing to do with the theatre:  Art, music, literature, the natural universe. A beautiful poem, a crystal vase, a sunrise, raindrops on roses: all these things and more provide antidotes to the likes of Fun Home, Book of Mormon, Hamilton, Hand to God, The Humans, etc. A single daisy triumphs over the whole lot of them.

 

Updated On: 6/2/16 at 05:59 AM

[Jane2]

Posted: 6/2/16 at 8:45am

After 8, I think you suffer with being born too early. Time marches on and things change but you're apparently stuck in the past. I'm also "old" and although I can't understand why some of today's art is considered good, I do love some of it. 

[gypsy101]

Posted: 6/2/16 at 8:51am

he was born too soon and started too late