Fun Home, the musical based on Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel memoir about her closeted gay father and her own coming out, is racking up the awards following a limited run at the Public Theater. Over the week it won the Critics Circle Award for Best Musical, and earlier the Lortel Awards for Best Musical. In addition Michael Cervaris won the Lortel for Best Actor in a Musical. The lay was previously nominated for Pulitzer Prize.
The stage version, by Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron, got a lot of attention during its run and it is now being readied for a run on Broadway.
Fun Home has also been the victim of a vindictive ban by various political forces in South Carolina who have been seeking to remove public funding for a university that used it as a text. The musical’s production actually volunteered to put on a performance in South Carolina to support gay rights and show how mainstream this material is. It was a rousing success. In the latest news, the South Carolina Senate has knocked down the funding ban, but it’s not over.
Despite the troglodyte (insulting to troglodytes) veiwsw of some people in South Carolina looking to gain points in an election year off of ignorance, by now it’s pretty clear that Fun Home the graphic novel, and now its musical spin off, is an enduring addition to American culture. Hooray for Alison Bechdel!
[hoto: Roberta Colindrez & Alexandra Socha in Fun Home via Broadway.com]
For those interested, Fun Home was resolicited in July’s Previews.
I know a few people who have watched this project grow from workshops/readings to the stage. Their personal reviews have all been glowing.
If you have Sirius satellite, they played the entire cast album Wed night on the Broadway channel 72. It was very well performed, intelligent material. You can check the Sirius schedule for replays.
Comments are closed.