Fun Home Previews — Page 20

I won the lottery last night - first time in 22 years that that's ever happened!

I'll just echo what everyone else is saying about Sydney Lucas. She's a tiny miracle. There is something so delicate but soaring about Ring of Keys. I was tempted to give a standing ovation but I didn't.

I'm sad that Al for Short is gone (Mindez-vous your BEEZNISS!!) but I guess it says something that I didn't realize its absence until after Telephone Wire. I understand why it's gone - Ring of Keys does the same work, and Come to the Fun Home is all the charm song we need.

I would fear that the latter might send the message that it's a kid's show.

I won the TodayTix lottery for Fun Home on Thursday night after only entering three times! I had entered for two tickets, but the person I was supposed to go with was unable to at the last minute, and I called TodayTix to see if I could only claim one, and they were more than accommodating. My seat was H 423, right behind the orchestra, and I thought it was a terrific view. You really don't miss a damn thing, except there are some songs that are played mostly to the other side of the audience, i.e. during "Ring of Keys," if I'm remembering correctly, I spent most of the time looking at Lucas's back. But there are moments where that vantage point is a strength, i.e. Cerveris's scene in the apartment in New York, or his final moments on stage.

I'm having an interesting reaction to this show. I certainly enjoyed it when I saw it, and thought Beth Malone, Sydney Lucas, and and Michael Cerveris were terrific; however, perhaps reading so much praise on here led me to have expectations that were too high, because I wasn't blown away or "emotionally devastated" as I was leaving the theater. Now, why do I say my reaction is interesting: Although I didn't adore the show or think it left a huge impact on me Thursday night, I've been thinking about it constantly since. The performances, the score that has been replaying in my head although I only heard it that one time, and the remarkable staging.

Fun Home didn't leave me with the instant gratification that I got from other musicals this season, but I certainly have not thought about a show after seeing it as much as this one. I'll keep entering the lottery for a chance to revisit it, because I think it's a show that really calls for repeat viewing, especially since there are so many different vantage points to experience it from!

Also, a huge thanks to Fun Home and Today Tix for making this show accessible for $32!

Agree Roberta Colindrez was superb, and agree with another poster that the show was not so overwhelmingly emotional for me (though I am gay with my own coming out story). I'm a huge admirer of the play and feel it deserves all the award attention it gets as an important addition to the body of musical theater literature. If it won the Tony for Best Musical, I wouldn't be crushed that my favorite (AAIP) lost out to FUN HOME.

I think it's fine to admire a work and find it masterful and important without personally adoring it. I don't need to see it a second or third time (although I probably will for the benefit of my husband who hasn't seen it yet.) "Love without being in love"-- isn't that something we've all heard from an ex in our past?

For a Tony performance, I would imagine a medley of "It All Comes Back" and "Ring of Keys" playing well.

I can see them doing something with "Flying Away," especially if Judy, Sydney, Beth, and Emily are all nominated. I really hope they don't perform "Come to the Fun Home," either - it does not display the true tone of the show, and in my opinion, it's the weakest number.

How is Emily in the show? I loved Alexandra - she fit in so well, and looked great alongside the other Alison's. I'm sad she left the production. Emily just does not fit in look-wise, and she looks like she's 15 to me (I believe she is 24/25 in real life).

I'm so behind on my Fun Home news because of school!

Updated On: 4/24/15 at 07:52 PM

Saw the show tonight and as I mentioned on another post elsewhere I felt like I was punched in the gut with emotion. I don't live in NYC so usually end up seeing shows that have been running for a while so seeing this show so close after opening was a treat. Holy crap was it good. It's not your stereotypical musical but what they have going over there at Circle in the Square is something special. The whole cast is fantastic- no weak link. Every single one of them is pulling their weight. If I spoke about each cast member individually we'd be here all night. All I will say is that if this doesn't win a bunch of Tony's something is seriously wrong. I have a feeling the women of this cast will be battling each other for the award.

For those wondering about seating - I was in D226 and thought it was a great view and was 2 rows behind Julia Murney.

Moral of the story- if you want a complete, new work that is both funny and heart wrenching get a ticket to Fun Home

Has anyone gone to the stage door after a matinee? Just wondering if anyone comes out.

I saw this last night ($30 standing room if the show is sold out, should anyone be interested) and I cannot think of another instance of a production having such a transformation in its transfer from off-Broadway. The new staging is such a revelation; things are clearer, more intimate, and more human. The middle part of the show especially benefits; the real sadness that drives "Raincoat of Love," the New York scene (having a full stage for that really helps), the quiet devastation of Judy Kuhn wandering, trapped in the house and its memories during "Days and Days," and the stunning simplicity of "Telephone Wire."

The short sequence that replaces "Al for Short" makes good use of "Helen's Etude" and the bridge of "Telephone Wire."

This is a work enriched by its transfer and particularly by its restaging. Sure, the reveal of the house is missed. But everything else that is revealed is more valuable.

Of the new musicals this season, I saw Fun Home, The Visit, An American in Paris, Something Rotten and Finding Neverland.

I just loved The Visit. Chita is an icon. So great in the show too!

American in Paris was beautiful, with amazing performances. So fun to see.

Heck, I even liked Neverland….but I know that doesn't have much of a chance based on what I'm reading. Still glad I saw it.

Fun Home though…..if it takes the prize, I won't be at all disappointed. It was just fantastic! Superb really. And the performances of all the leading ladies were captivating. As was the performance of Cerveris.

This was actually a really good season, IMO.

All very different musicals….with something different to offer.

Updated On: 4/26/15 at 07:37 PM

Kad: "Sure, the reveal of the house is missed. But everything else that is revealed is more valuable."
Indytallguy: "Eloquently said."

Agreed about the second part (i.e., a net gain overall). But even the reveal of the house isn't missed by me -- at all. I think the subtler way it comes together at Circle in the Square works infinitely better, and thankfully so: its reveal at the Public struck me as confusingly bloated -- a case of huge and somewhat heavy spectacle distorting the show around it, in order to hammer home a point of only moderate importance. (In comparison, the elegant simplicity of adult Alison stepping in for Middle Alison shortly before "Telephone Wire" -- a vastly more important device, emotionally and thematically speaking -- felt forced and out of place among all that naturalistic scenery downtown). In the Public production overall, I got a distinct sense of Gold and his designers not quite having figured out how to support this odd, delicate and intricately-structured piece of writing.

By contrast, their Broadway staging and design are a thing of rare beauty: the movement of the set from "Raincoat of Love" onward is a minor miracle of smart and economical visual storytelling, but in particular, the return to Maple Avenue during "Let me introduce you to my gay dad..." (i.e., what used to be "the house reveal" in the earlier production, now a smartly calibrated and still eye-filling panoply of rising furniture and descending chandeliers) has found its ideal scale and form. The moment is exactly as impressive, visually speaking, as it should be -- no more and no less. "Days and Days" becomes a dynamic soliloquy rather than a standard-issue Park-and-Bark For Miserable Housewife (which, uncharitable as that sounds, is pretty much how it struck me at the Public, Kuhn's lovely rendition notwithstanding. Who'd have thunk that forcing her to wander through her new "museum/prison"-in-the-round, rather than remaining nailed in place at the kitchen table, would make such a remarkable difference?). And the transition from Middle to adult Alison, through "Telephone Wire" and "Edges of the World," all likewise rather flaccid and inert in the Public staging, now take their rightful place as the emotional crux of the show: ten minutes that stand among the most piercingly beautiful theatre I've ever seen.

Just my two cents. After seeing the show dowtown, I would have said the libretto itself needed significant further work, but the Broadway restaging has proven me utterly wrong (and I couldn't be happier). I could easily have been wrong about the original production, too; if I could see that Public version again now, it's possible I might find it less confused, and confusing, than I did at the time. But I still think the Broadway production is an improvement on pretty much every front -- the "house reveal" very much included, since, apparently unlike most viewers, I counted it among the earlier production's liabilities rather than among its assets.

Updated On: 4/28/15 at 04:25 AM

Thanks for everyone's thoughtful commentary. I managed to see Fun Home during yesterday's Saturday matinee. I *did* listen to the cast album a few times before we headed to NY since I usually find it helps me sink into a score better. However, I was never able to warm up to the music, even the much lauded "Ring of Keys." When I saw it live, though, it reduced me to a mess of tears. I still can't say it's a score I'd listen to over and over, yet somehow with the book and the lyrics and music plus those great performances it hit me much harder than I'd expected.

My husband said it was remarkably faithful to the graphic novel, which he loves, and he considered it a masterful adaptation.