FUN HOME- previews — Page 3

I did wonder, during the first 15 minutes or so, if I would enjoy this show more if it wasn't a musical, but they won me over on the musical aspect by the time they hit the children's Fun Home commercial scene, and I was entirely on board after that.

I wasn't familiar with the novel going in, and I thought that it actually was a bit ambiguous as to whether or not Bruce intended to commit suicide. Alison spoke of him as though he did, definitely, but the scene with Bruce's big number at the house left me questioning (perhaps there was something in the lyrics that I missed though. Good reason to go back, I suppose! Not that I need more reasons to go back; I loved the show.)

Updated On: 10/4/13 at 11:59 AM

I saw this last night and am still thinking of it. The score really grabbed me. Lots of soaring melodies and I LOVED the orchestrations. As already said the cast is uniformly excellent with all of the kids and Alexandra Socha getting special mention.

After spending three hours watching a turntable set turn around for no good reason in A Time To Kill, it was nice to see one used effectively here.

The show reminds me a bit of Next To Normal, dark, daring and exciting theater. I wish there was a place on Broadway for it, but I think it is a perfect fit at the public. Don't miss this one.

@macnyc yeah you're totally right about that last scene - that's when the knockout punch was delivered for the character

I think I maybe just felt sorry for the actress who had to stand and watch everybody deliver these great scenes while she hunched over a drawing table haha. Oh well - it's not even a critique. The piece is spectacular.

I just started reading the book last night and I'm already in love with it. I missed the lab production last year, and I got a student ticket (one of two singles left for this Thursday) last week and I can't wait to see it.

"Is this the first time the story of a gay woman has been told in a musical as the protagonist?"

The first time Off-Broadway. There are a few small, experimental-ish musicals with lesbian protagonists (like "Lesbian Love Octagon"), but this is the first "major" musical with a lesbian protagonist.

SPOILERS:

The Colette book, and the father's illicit behavior, are especially ambiguous in the book. Alison constantly questions whether or not the father had some idea what he was doing when he gave his nascent lesbian daughter a Colette book, or whether it merely spoke to him. Similarly, when Alison finds out about her father's dalliances with teenage boys, and even finds borderline pornographic photos of her former babysitter, she questions her response- she doesn't feel the level of outrage that she would feel if they were teenage girls, and isn't sure why she is sympathetic despite her father's pedophilia/ephebophilia.

Thanks; that does shed a little more light.

Cannot wait to see this next week!

Mac-They put changes in as of yesterday. (I was there Sunday night and at the talk back they said the cast would get the re-writes on Tues. and that they'd be implemented on Wed.)

I haven't heard such great word-of-mouth for a show in a long time. Based upon this thread, I got tickets for Saturday. Really looking forward to it!

I'm a young partner and booked tickets over the phone. I don't believe the Public allows you to chose your tickets (but on the upside, isn't the annoying POS page that Telecharge has become).

I'm going on Saturday after hearing the great buzz here and on ATC. I think I respect Tesori's work more than I love it, but nonetheless, I'm excited to see it. Michael Cerveris and Judy Kuhn are plusses, too.

I saw the show last night but couldn't really write about it until now because it would have just been "OMG SEE THIS SHOW RIGHT NOW!!!" over and over. The sentiment remains true but now I can elucidate a little more.

I can safely say this is one of the best shows I've ever seen. Never have I been more emotionally invested in a story from the beginning to the bitter end. While I wish this show was longer than 100 minutes I don't know if I could have taken much more without breaking down. There were songs where I was dying of laughter (the Fun Home commercial, the Partridge Family sequence), sobbing (Judy Kuhn and Michael Cerveris' numbers) and both (Changing My Major to Joan, the delivery woman song).

The acting is across the board fantastic. As Whizzer said, every person in the cast deserves their own paragraph of heaping praise. Most of the time I find child stage actors to be too precious and twee but these kids were acting far above their ages. Small Alison gives a performance that you would expect from a 30-something because she understands all the nuances in the character. The delivery woman song was actually the highlight of the show for me (followed ever so closely by the Fun Home commercial). For a girl to act the emotion behind that song without having lived through it is actually mind-blowing.

Sadly I didn't get to see the lab production so I can't comment on anyone except Michael Cerveris who I thought did a fantastic job. I haven't really enjoyed anything he's done since SWEENEY TODD but he really delivered here. People seem to love Judy Kuhn who I've only seen in PASSION prior to this. At first I was wondering why she was in this role because it's kind of a throwaway but then her 11 o'clock number was phenomenal.

I thought the set was great and you would probably have a great view from any seat in the house. Great use of the turntable. The one thing I didn't really like were the boxes/lines drawn on the black curtain during the set change. It didn't really add anything and seemed like "hey this is a graphic novel so let's do cartoony stuff."

Obviously I highly recommend the show. I can't wait to go back and think I should rush the show before reviews come out because this will be a hot ticket.

Side Note: Does anyone know if you are limited to one student ticket per show? I know they put your info into the computer when you purchase the ticket but not sure if they keep track.

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