Fun Home, most factual musical? — Page 2

I would argue that FUN HOME's brilliance can be attributed not to its accuracy in reporting facts but to its honesty in creating and sustaining a singular point of view, its focus necessarily and appropriately devoid of any attempt at objectivity. Is Bechdel an unreliable narrator? No, but she is the first to admit that her remembered childhood has been filtered through her quest, a personal detective story, the need to assemble and find meaning in disparate puzzle pieces. I believe that makes it emotionally true, whether it is "factual" or not. In the theater, emotional truth trumps just about everything.

Updated On: 6/25/15 at 06:23 PM

“Memoir is not an act of history but an act of memory, which is innately corrupt.” Mary Karr

Working is a musical documentary. So that's up there.

South Florida writes: "I have some doubts that Bruce killed himself."

I haven't seen FUN HOME, but I just read the graphic memoir (graphic in both senses of the word). I, too, have my doubts that Bruce killed himself. The branches he was carrying could easily have prevented him from seeing the truck. Also, killing oneself by walking into traffic is both iffy and selfish -- that truck driver probably never got over what happened.

Probably, one of the toughest things for Alison Bechdel was not knowing what happened. If Bruce had been my father, I think I'd have hated him, because he comes off as an abusive parent, at least in the book.

Audrey

I can see that. I read the book and saw the musical and I definitely think he was depressed and likely suicidal, and in the book Alison describes some of the signs that lead people to believe he did intend on killing himself. However, I think its possible the accident may have just coincided with those signs, and jumping in front of a truck wasn't necessarily his intended way of committing suicde.

And I agree with you. I saw the show first and was very surprised with how much more borderline abusive he was in the actual book. He really used those kids as nothing more than prop pieces in his act of hiding his true self, and his love and compassion for them, many times seemed practically non-existent.

"(Is) FUN HOME... (the) most factual musical?"

Maybe. Maybe not. I quite like the posts above about the reliability of memory. But I do think that FUN HOME is one of the most important musicals dealing with homosexuality - period. Pat Cerasaro didn't seem to agree at first, but a later edit of the article at least gets the show a cursory mention in the introduction - although as far as I'm concerned, it could replace any one of at least five on his list.