FUN HOME Reviews- Page 9

[ebontoyan]

Posted: 4/30/15 at 9:52pm

My MP3 version of Off Broadway FH from Amazon is still in my IPhone, unfortunately.  I wish someone will remove it from there! lol Yeah I did buy this thing to find out what the brouhaha was about after reading all the gushing from the previews thread and couldn't find anywhere what the story was about! 

Updated On: 4/30/15 at 09:52 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/30/15 at 9:59pm

Well, I suppose you could read the synopsis for Alison Bechdel's autobiographical graphic novel, Fun Home, on Amazon.

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

[jkstheatrescene]

Posted: 4/30/15 at 10:00pm

And we also get that you love this thing.
Has that stopped you from repeating it endlessly?

And we get that you hate it.

Has that stopped you from repeating it endlessly?

 

No.

[jkstheatrescene]

Posted: 4/30/15 at 10:00pm

Updated On: 4/30/15 at 10:00 PM

[firebolts]

Posted: 4/30/15 at 10:01pm

@ebontoyan,

I'm sorry you didn't care for it! Purely listening to the musical can definitely be complicated if you don't know the plot. What might help you: Alison Bechdel's Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alison_Bechdel (the musical is based on her life with her father before he committed suicide); Alison's graphic memoir Fun Home (the musical is heavily based on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fun_Home - "plot and thematic summary"). Lastly, you could always reference the musical's Wikipedia page as well. I hope this helps you some! 

What did you not like about the musical? Just curious. 

[rcwr]

Posted: 4/30/15 at 10:03pm

Or here are some trade reviews of the book, both starred:

Publishers Weekly

Kirkus

[ebontoyan]

Posted: 4/30/15 at 10:12pm

Thanks everyone! Some gracious people on this thread had told me the plot and I also googled it since some poster on here said 'For goodness sake, google it yourself' or something like that. And nah it is not interesting to me and will not be watching on my next trip to NYC in May.  And jkswhatever, yeah u know I hate it but I actually don't I just don't care to watch it. And I haven't posted about my MP3 yet so...lol

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/30/15 at 10:14pm

Not everything is for everybody.

 

[BrerBear]

Posted: 4/30/15 at 10:27pm

I'm with Namo here.

 

This is a review thread, After Eight. Telling us you don't like the "Ring of Keys" scene over and over is just trolling. You're better than that. (I can't believe I just wrote those words...)

 

*Why* is the scene so offensive to you? As Namo pointed out, the scene resonates with viewers like me because we relate to it from a time in our lives when we thought we were the only ones with our identities (gay / nerdy / etc.) only to be thrilled at the discovery of another.

 

Why is that offensive?

Are you courageous enough to answer?

[After Eight]

Posted: 4/30/15 at 10:49pm

^

Uh, I already have. Do a search if you're that interested.

Oh, and one other thing. Why do you think someone would want to revisit a wretched experience just to please you?

A little arrogant on your part, I would say.

[indytallguy]

Posted: 4/30/15 at 10:51pm

"I'm with Namo here.

 

This is a review thread, After Eight. Telling us you don't like the "Ring of Keys" scene over and over is just trolling. You're better than that. (I can't believe I just wrote those words...)

 

*Why* is the scene so offensive to you? As Namo pointed out, the scene resonates with viewers like me because we relate to it from a time in our lives when we thought we were the only ones with our identities (gay / nerdy / etc.) only to be thrilled at the discovery of another.

 

Why is that offensive?

Are you courageous enough to answer?

"

He's previously explained his narrow-minded beliefs about the ickiness and psychological trauma inflicted on Sydney Lucas for making her sing such a vile and despicable song.

Please don't invite him to do so again in his condescending tone of intentional nastiness as it only denies again the reality of what some (many?) gays and lesbians actually felt growing up.

[firebolts]

Posted: 4/30/15 at 11:08pm

From my understanding, when they explained "Ring of Keys" to Sydney Lucas, they didn't tell her specifically that she's singing about a masculine lesbian - just someone who is "different." I read that in one of the Home Fun interviews, I believe. It's a wonderful song, and it's definitely not just targeted at the gay community. Like BrerBear stated, that song can resonate with anyone who feels different, who feels strange. Also, Sydney performs the number with such depth - her pauses and "uhm's" during "Ring of Keys" make Small Alison's emotions so much more palpable during that scene. It's a great number, in my opinion. 

[rcwr]

Posted: 4/30/15 at 11:10pm

I don't know what they told Sydney Lucas very early on, but she absolutely knows the whole lesbian content of the show. She's been explicit about it in interviews.

[firebolts]

Posted: 4/30/15 at 11:12pm

Of course she does. She's one of the leads in the show, and that is the main theme of the musical. I'm just restating what I read in that interview about how they explained the song/scene to her. 

[rcwr]

Posted: 4/30/15 at 11:14pm

I'm sorry, firebolts, I misunderstood what you meant. I thought you were thinking that maybe she still didn't know.

[firebolts]

Posted: 4/30/15 at 11:16pm

Oh, no, it's all good! I don't know how they would keep that from her since Alison's sexuality is so central to the plot, haha. Anyway, I don't believe Sydney suffered any trauma by singing that song. 

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/30/15 at 11:27pm

"Why do you think someone would want to revisit a wretched experience just to please you?"

Which is what you do every time you revisit this thread and re-experience the surrogate trauma you project onto Sydney Lucas, right?  Cuz this is ALL in your head.  Your messed up head.

I think it's about something much much deeper than what you're projecting onto a performer.

Updated On: 4/30/15 at 11:27 PM

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 4/30/15 at 11:49pm

The funny thing about the comments I've seen against the Ring of Keys number is that they focus on the ick factor, as if there's something inherently sexual about it, and inherently sexual about queer love. Many have spoken out as finding Ring of Keys hitting shockingly close to home, particularly for queer individuals, where often you aren't really taught that you could, possibly, be gay or bi or lesbian or trans or anything, so suddenly you have this really amorphous realization about something you don't entirely understand. It's not like she's tearing off her clothes with lust, she's just realizing, hey - I feel a connection to this, whatever this is, this masculinity in this woman. And she's not entirely able to express it.

 

And you read all these positive reactions to the Ring of Keys number, and all these anecdotes, including my own (my dad loved Home Improvement, and I loved Al Borland, and I didn't know what that meant, or why, or how I could feel as I did), and I think it's moving and brave to include the Ring of Keys number, to put to music a moment that so many of us share. And I think it's borderline offensive to find it "icky", as if that moment is "icky" and we should all be ashamed for having it in our own lives. I can't imagine Sydney Lucas isn't a smart girl, and I can't imagine any damage would be done to her by introducing her to the concept of queer love.

 

It's exactly this spread of knowledge that will help our next generations in finding themselves, whoever they turn out to be.

Updated On: 4/30/15 at 11:49 PM

[rcwr]

Posted: 5/1/15 at 12:01am

I think it's borderline offensive to find it "icky", as if that moment is "icky" and we should all be ashamed for having it in our own lives.

I'm flat-out offended by people finding it "icky." It can only imply that queerness is more sexual than non-queerness, queerness has nothing in its makeup that isn't about sex, and that's it's wrong for kids to know about, talk about, experience queerness. Ring of Keys is about sexuality, but also very much about gender (butchness) and also identification.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/1/15 at 12:21am

Yeah, it actually does cross the borderline.  And I think that's what this is about.  That icky lesbianism.  Of course, A8 waxes rhapsodic about the sexless senior citizens with the drag club in the Jerry Herman musical.  But a little girl realizing she is different, that is OUTRAGEOUS.

Even if it weren't a delightful song in a wonderful piece of theater, we can honor the fact that this is an incident that happened in Alison Bechdel's real life.  She put the truth down, beautifully.  I wonder about the mental damage in someone who could possibly be disgusted by that.

Who did what to A8 to bring this about?

[kdogg36]

Posted: 5/1/15 at 12:48am

Don't try to bully into silence those who disagree with you.

Are you suggesting the anti-Fun Home posts, like yours and Tony2600's (back on page 7), have been perfectly civil and respectful?

Thanks for the correction earlier on "de rigueur."

 

[BrerBear]

Posted: 5/1/15 at 1:34am

I find "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" a lot more offensive than "Ring of Keys".

Less fawning over domineering but underage Nazis, and more "tea with jam and bread"' please.

Updated On: 5/1/15 at 01:34 AM

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 5/1/15 at 1:48am

And yet, After Eight has stated several times his love for the revival of Gigi, which is literally a story of a young woman being groomed to be a courtesan. Personally, that's a lot more uncomfortable than anything in Fun Home. 

[After Eight]

Posted: 5/1/15 at 4:43am

Uhhh, people, you don't get it.

You people just don't get it.

Because you have no understanding of such concepts as propriety, decorum, seemliness, and consideration for others, much less would you care about such things even if you did. Indeed, if even you could grasp them, you would be revolted by such notions, as much as I am by things that trample upon them.

You see, (actually you don't see, because you can't --- and don't want to see), the issue is not that it's a ten-year old girl miauling her feelings about a woman to hideous music; it would be equally stomach-turning if it were a ten-year old boy miauling about a woman; a ten-year old boy miauling about a man; or a ten-year old girl miauling about a man.

It's about what is proper for a child to be singing about to an audience.

 

Updated On: 5/1/15 at 04:43 AM

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/1/15 at 5:31am

But it NOT  about sexuality....at all.  It's about identity.  She doesn't even realize she IS gay until college.  This is about identity of self, realizing there are other people that feel like you do ..which for her is more masculine.  She doesn't want to be I involved with that woman, in any way, physically

Lastly, if you don't think young people HAVE sexual feelings you are sadly mistaken.

But lastly, why can't you see that just because there is disagreement, doesn't make you right and others wrong.  It makes YOU uncomfortable, but not  others.That's where the issue lies, that  you, like Philly, cannot fathom that your  opinion or thoughts could be anything but  right, something to prove or FACTUAL.

Updated On: 5/1/15 at 05:31 AM