Fun Home Previews- Page 6

[dramamama611]

Posted: 3/30/15 at 7:01am

You can't change people, you can only change the way you react to them.

Will YOU still get to see it ?

Updated On: 3/30/15 at 07:01 AM

[South Florida]

Posted: 3/30/15 at 7:47am

Got the tickets, this is the first can't miss for me in years.

[Kad]

Posted: 3/30/15 at 8:00am

"Sally, Kad loved it, what are you talking about?"

I wrote a whole post about how I admire it more than I love it.

[AlanR2]

Posted: 3/30/15 at 8:40am

I am new to this board and trying to find out how to get discount codes. I'd love to see this show this coming weekend. Any suggestions??
Thanks,

[AC126748]

Posted: 3/30/15 at 8:45am

Playbill has an $89 discount code available right now and there appear to be plenty of seats available this weekend.

[PJPan]

Posted: 3/30/15 at 8:54am

Saw it last night and it struck such a chord, especially after just having come from a weekend visiting my parents. How lucky I am.

"Ring of Keys" and "Days and Days" - I was riveted. Sydney Lucas grasps onto that song and pulls you right along with her. Judy Kuhn - just wonderful, understated delivery. I had heard all of the show's buzz and the basis of the material, but other than that I went in completely blind. I agree with Kad that while I admired the show, I don't think I could go back. I think for me, though, I'd be afraid not to feel what I felt the first time.

What a wonderful ensemble all around.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 3/30/15 at 9:17am

I saw it this weekend, having never seen it before (but having a passing familiarity). I felt like I'd just been gut-punched and bear-hugged. Amazing.

[tazber]

Posted: 3/30/15 at 9:19am

I felt like I'd just been gut-punched and bear-hugged.

I love that phrase. Sums it up perfectly.

[GilmoreGirlO2]

Posted: 3/30/15 at 9:29am

Thank you, all, for the reviews! It’s blowing my mind to hear so many talk about how it’s even better than at The Public, because I couldn’t imagine it getting any better. I already have tickets for 2 different performances for my June trip (I rarely see a show twice in one trip, but had to make an exception for this one), but after reading all of these reviews, it’s making it even harder to wait the few months to see it! So happy to hear so many people are enjoying it.

[holdyourbatboy]

Posted: 3/30/15 at 9:42am

This is a show that stays with you long after you've seen it. Still thinking about everything...

For anyone that saw it at the Public - this production takes the material to a whole new level. Because the staging is so different and unique, the entire vibe has changed and the stakes feel much higher from the moment it begins.

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 3/30/15 at 10:01am

Just got my tickets for when I visit NYC in June. Can't wait. I've been obsessed with the cast recording for months.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 3/30/15 at 10:24am

I was at the first preview the other night, and I was very, very lucky to speak with a few of the creatives afterwards at a small reception in the lower lobby. I tried to be articulate, but am afraid I just seemed like a babbling fanboy. At 40, that ain't cute.

*Spoilers* I've never quite experienced seeing a show change so dramatically just because of its staging. I thought the show wouldn't translate well into the round, particularly the reveal of the finished house. I was very, very wrong. Somehow the round has allowed this show to become far more fully realized, and two performers benefit greatly. Beth Malone was terrific downtown, but in the proscenium staging, she was very often on the sides of the stage watching the action. Putting the show in the round allows her to be fully engaged with examining her past. The performance is entirely similar to what she did downtown...it's just the proximity to the action that makes her throughline feel far more active. This pays off in spades by the end of the show. The staging of 'Telephone Wire' in particular has become something breathtaking in its simplicity. Allowing the characters to literally talk in circles seems so obvious, and yet it's just so right...and fresh.

The other major beneficiary of this new staging is Judy Kuhn. I don't know how this has been achieved, but what felt like a lovely supporting performance downtown has now become the emotional lynchpin on the evening. Days and Days (as staged at the public) was very effective with Kuhn just sitting at the table and telling her story. Allowing her to get up and move around and through the house which has crushed her and her life while warning Alison about the choices she might make turned the song into an aria of regret that has no peer. Watch Kuhn as she approaches the piano during that song. It's devastating. Lots of people thought she'd win the Tony based on her performance at the Public, but I wasn't one of them. On Broadway? I can't imagine anyone else winning.

All of the other performances have deepened and become more fully integrated into the storytelling. The seemingly-dangerous open traps left on the stage during Cerveris's breakdown were another very simple, very effective visual representation of the character's emotional state.

The only thing I missed from the downtown production was the final projection at the very end of the show. I wish there was a way to replicate it here. But...if that's my only qualm, then I'll gladly lose that moment to experience all the other wonderful things this new staging has achieved.

[jpbran]

Posted: 3/30/15 at 10:48am

Getting to our seats (sat behind Tobey Maguire last night), I was VERY nervous about whether I'd be able to settle in to the "in the round" staging. Didn't see the earlier staging, but it worked very well for me, fairly quickly.

It felt like we were all observing this family under a microscope, in some museum setting. Or old-fashioned "operating/surgery theater." Seeing the people on the other side was distracting only at first... Kinda became part of it.

PS-- When did yelling "Bravo!" (Or "Brava!") during a show (at song applause) become a thing again? Two different times from two different parts of the audience. Odd.

[jpbran]

Posted: 3/30/15 at 10:50am

Oh, and I was thoroughly moved... very relatable to me as someone who came out in high school & college at approximately the same time period. (late 80s?) Couple of lines and songs felt like, as said before, emotional gut punches.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 3/30/15 at 10:57am

If the 'bravas' were after Days and Days and Ring of Keys, I'd say they were well deserved.

The other thing that occurred to me (between seeing this last year and last week) is that this is the closest the musical theater has come to replicating the essential family plays written by O'Neil and Miller. It's the most naturalistic musical I've ever encountered, and it's the truest depiction of family I've seen set to music.

[jv92]

Posted: 3/30/15 at 11:07am

I still Bravo/a. I like it better that "whoo-hoo"-ing.

Anyway, seeing this next week. Curious about seeing it in the round, but after reading some of these posts, I think it'll be terrific.

[jv92]

Posted: 3/30/15 at 11:10am

And SomeoneInATree, the song titles weren't listed in the Playbill downtown, either. So it's nothing new.

I guess if you REALLY want an audience to be surprised about the songs, it's kind of okay not to list them. But I don't even think that's a valid excuse. If I like a song, I want to remember the damned title so I can reference it when I talk about the show.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 3/30/15 at 11:12am

Can't you just google the cast recording and look at the track list?

[VotePeron]

Posted: 3/30/15 at 11:13am

At last night's performance, the first "Brava," which was very loud, was after "Changing My Major," which debatably got the best reaction of the night, after "Come To The Fun Home."

I'll post a full review later, but yeah, after seeing at the Public and now on Broadway, it's unbelievable how it managed to get...better.

ALSO - Did they cut "Al For Short," or did I hallucinate?

[jv92]

Posted: 3/30/15 at 11:14am

Lizzie, when there's no cast album yet, it's a little difficult. But yes, after the album is made, certainly.

I was referring to not listing songs in the program in general. Not just in the case of FUN HOME.

Updated On: 3/30/15 at 11:14 AM

[jpbran]

Posted: 3/30/15 at 11:16am

There IS a cast album... I downloaded it from iTunes walking back to the hotel from the show. $9.99.

[jv92]

Posted: 3/30/15 at 11:17am

I know. I suppose I was unclear in my original post.

I was talking about the habit some writers have of not listing songs, in general. Before there's an album. Once the album's out, fine. But that doesn't happen right away.

[holdyourbatboy]

Posted: 3/30/15 at 11:21am

"The other thing that occurred to me (between seeing this last year and last week) is that this is the closest the musical theater has come to replicating the essential family plays written by O'Neill and Miller."

- I had this thought as well. Completely agree.

[Cupid Boy2]

Posted: 3/30/15 at 11:30am

In regards to shouting bravo/brava, I hope that doesn't become a regular fixture for audiences seeing Fun Home because that's one of my greatest pet peeves. Each time I've witnessed it happen, it's been shouted by an older gentleman. Perhaps the tradition has a greater history of which I'm not being appreciative, but in today's world, it seems incredibly self-indulgent to me.

[jv92]

Posted: 3/30/15 at 11:34am

I find screeching "Woo!" at the top of one's lungs incredibly self indulgent. At least "Bravo/a" has some theatrical meaning behind it. Thank God for those older gay men still shouting it-- they have taste.

Should we not be allowed to cheer, though, Cupid Boy2?