Fun Home Previews — Page 17

Thank you, indytallguy. When I saw FH downtown, I was less-enamored by it than I'd hoped to be, but it's been steadily growing on me ever since -- in recent months it's become my new obsession, particularly its score -- and the Broadway staging has utterly erased any remaining qualms.

Updated On: 4/13/15 at 11:00 AM

"Cf. La Cage aux Folles, Gemini, Angels in America, The Normal Heart, Torch Song Trilogy, The Killing of Sister George, The Boys in the Band..."

After Eight, of the shows you're citing, The Normal Heart and The Boys in the Band originally had off-Broadway runs, where they were indeed very popular but then again, so was Fun Home, which was sold out for the majority of its (extended several times) run. Off-Broadway shows don't have to draw as broad an audience, so the comparison to the Broadway production of Fun Home isn't really relevant here.

I would also argue that there are gay aspects to Gemini and The Killing of Sister George, those plays don't explicitly deal with LGBT subplots in the way that Fun Home does.

So, that leaves us with Torch Song Trilogy, Angels in America, and La Cage aux Folles. It should be noted that none of these plays deal with lesbian characters (or even have any lesbian characters, unless I'm forgetting someone in Torch Song), whereas Fun Home has a lesbian protagonist. Maybe it's splitting hairs to you, but I do believe that because theatre is often seen as the realm of gay men, not women, audiences are going to be more comfortable with a play featuring gay men than women. Not to mention, though there characters in La Cage and Torch Song are openly gay, many of them are drag queens and thus safely fit into old gay sterotypes that go back many years. I do actually agree with you that the original productions of La Cage and Torch Song were risky bets for their time, and that shouldn't be entirely discounted, but I don't think either of those shows force the audience to deal with gay sexuality in the way that Fun Home does- especially since Fun Home is not only about gay sexuality, but how damaging homophobia is.

Really, of your list, the only thing I think is truly analogous to Fun Home in regards to how daring it is with gay themes is Angels in America, and the original production, though obviously highly acclaimed, ran for about a year and a half, hardly any kind of smash hit, especially since the play was such an event.

In addition to the gay themes, I think Fun Home is also a difficult sell, despite the reviews, because it's partially about a suicide and takes place in a funeral home. There are many audience members who may not want to see a show, especially a musical, about those themes- I'll even admit being a little worried when an embalming scene was mentioned on this board, as that does make me a bit uncomfortable. So there's clearly reasons why the show is a difficult sell, but that doesn't mean that the audience is insulted by it. The (very full) audience the night I saw it lept to their feet when the show ended, so your thesis that the show is insulting to its audience doesn't really (nor has it ever) held water. It's insulting to you, but not to everyone.

But I think her adaptors have done a creditable job in preserving this ambiguity as far as possible. Alison's line "Was it because of me? I'm afraid it ...wasn't. That's the crazy thing, Dad, I'm afraid it wasn't!" (or, on Broadway, the simpler and less bad-laugh-courting "Was it because of me, or did it have nothing to do with me??") could be thought to question not only Bruce's motivation but also his agency in the matter of his own death. And most importantly, "Edges of the World" leaves him in front of the oncoming truck asking "Oh my god, why am I standing here??" in stunned incomprehension. If the book scrupulously illustrated his death as perhaps the most overdetermined "accident" imaginable, the show conversely suggests a strikingly unpremeditated and nearly-inadvertent "suicide," occasioned by a moment of tortured self-absorption but not necessarily by any explicit will to die.

Absolutely agree--that was the argument I was trying to make, but you put it better.

"You imply constantly that anyone who doesn't share your taste is stupid or following the popular crowd."

I imply nothing of the kind. You infer ---- incorrectly.

Gushy moment of Fun Home appreciation to add to the bulging scrapbook of specific moments people like in the show: the way small Alison's "I can see all of Pennsylvania" is so subtly altered for the end of the show. At the beginning, the musical phrase doesn't close, it invites further music to follow, which it does. I mean, naturally - the whole show follows, as well as Alison's musings on her childhood that lead to some form of closure, as represented by the altering of the end of "Pennsylvania". It's such a small thing but it gives me goosebumps for a lot of different reasons. The way it closes the show, musically. The way it suggests that the moment is now an object of the past, that Alison has settled on it and let it be, the way it's shifted from an open, exploring note with so much before it to a piece of personal history, something a long time ago. That probably all sounds silly but I think it's a gorgeous, small thing that makes the show for me.

"Gushy moment of Fun Home appreciation to add to the bulging scrapbook of specific moments people like in the show: the way small Alison's "I can see all of Pennsylvania" is so subtly altered for the end of the show. [...] The way it suggests that the moment is now an object of the past, that Alison has settled on it and let it be, the way it's shifted from an open, exploring note with so much before it to a piece of personal history, something a long time ago. That probably all sounds silly but I think it's a gorgeous, small thing that makes the show for me."

Not silly at all, Charley -- that beautiful progression struck me the first time I saw the show, downtown, and remains one of my very favoritest things about its remarkable score.

I also love the way the lyric itself ("I can see all of Pennsylvania") connects to the scene preceding "Maps," in which Small Alison is defending her fanciful drawing of "the Keystone State," while in "Maps" itself, older Alison seems to have at least partly internalized her father's preference for tangible, objective truth (as glaringly distinct, in his case, from emotional honesty), focusing for the moment on a tiny 1.5-mile slice of Beech Creek even as she laments how little of his life is truly conveyed by the bare geographic facts.

Back to the game of "airplane": when I first heard the score, I kept wondering why Tesori had chosen to repeatedly build some of the show's most rhapsodic harmonies, in the opening and closing sequences, around a word as quirkily specific as "Pennsylvania". But once I realized the "Maps" connection, the line "I can see all of Pennsylvania" gained a powerful resonance. Bruce insists that Small Alison's "map" is trying to encompass too much -- there is no real-world vantage from which one can literally see the family car and the entire state -- while adult Alison hungers for exactly that, micro and macro, "to know what's true, [to] dig deep into who and what and why and when". Both points of view are understandable, Bruce's at 33(ish) and Alison's at 43, but -- without overly sentimentalizing the supposed wisdom of children -- it may be that Small Alison, balanced precariously atop her father's upstretched feet, had it intuitively right all along: often our grasp on the most valuable truths requires not only distance and discipline but also, crucially, imagination.

I like to think that this realization (rediscovery?) is what brings adult Alison to the sense of personal and creative resolution suggested in the show's luminous final moments: objectively, it will never be possible to fully understand her parents' lives, or even her own childhood; but the bravery of the attempt -- and the deeply committed and sustained act of moral imagination it requires -- may be enough.

Now I'm the one who sounds silly; it's really hard to talk about this show without waxing "gushy," as you say (and in my case, more than a bit pretentious). I'm seeing it again tonight, for my second time at Circle in the Square -- but, I suspect, not my last.

Updated On: 4/15/15 at 04:18 PM

Beautifully observed, Charley and Weaselprince.

This is such a rich show and I feel like a lot more thought went into the crafting of score and libretto than what is perceived at first sight or listen. I admire Kron and Tesori's work so much.

Saw the show tonight. There's nothing to say that hasn't already been said except to say it's just stupid good. Just like really really stupid good. It's breathtaking. I loved it downtown and blubbered like a baby next to Tesori in the back row. But here, I don't know. It's just become such a beautiful piece. I loved how it was all designed and how Gold used the floor and the space. It was just incredible. I wish we could collectively give everyone an award. I'm not sure who I'd single out for Lead or Supporting. I just thought they were all brilliant in their own moments. The way "Telephone Wire" is staged is incredible. The reveal of the house when Allison comes back home is incredible. I'm just in love. It inspires me. It makes me so excited to be alive! And it makes me excited to see more theater, etc. I just really can't enough good things. Go see it. I can't imagine it won't win every award possible.

I was also there tonight. It's just brilliant. In every way. I didn't think it could be this good or improve as vastly as it has. The staging is some of the most creative work you'll see this or any season. For some reason, it seems to work even better in the round. I didn't find myself missing the proscenium or the old staging at all. They use the space for all of its worth, and it's very rewarding.

From the lighting to the set to the orchestration to the book and score to the performances (wow, those performances!), it's some of the best Broadway can hope to offer. It's one moving, thrilling, fulfilling theatre piece. It should certainly win every award this season.

(For my money, I'd say Cerveris and Malone should be placed in the leading categories.)

I concur almost entirely. I, too, found Lucas to be outstanding -- not JUST because of her young age, but that does make it even more amazing.

The awards I HOPE it most comes home with:

Director

Musical

Acting: for Lucas

But I'd be thrilled if Malone and Ceveris were also crowned.

A beautiful, sensitive and loving piece of art.

I'd also love a sweep, but my biggest hope is that it wins Best Score. Tesori is long overdue for a win, and I'm so consistently impressed with Lisa Kron's lyrics- they'd be great regardless, but they're so skilled I forget that she's never written a musical before.

It's so far above the competition, it would be ridiculous to give the award to any other show.