The Tony Awards is Broadway’s biggest night of the year, and they are less than two weeks away. Fun Home has been nominated for 12 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Direction, Choreography, and Best Lead Actor in a Musical. The show is based on Alison Bechdel’s autobiographical graphic novel about growing up in a dysfunctional family. It is a coming of age story that bounces back and forth through Alison’s life, and it’s about figuring out who you are while also figuring out your family members — who may have some mysteries to them. The musical demonstrates a universal theme of acceptance of both self and loved ones.
Alison is portrayed by three actresses, representing childhood, college years, and adulthood. Each actress is brilliant at making you feel Alison’s yearning to become her own person in the confusing world of her family. She becomes her own individual while at the same time realizing that her parents are flawed just like everyone else. When Alison acknowledges and accepts that she is a lesbian, her sense of peace is clear to the audience. That is, until she speaks to her father (who is himself a closeted gay man), and he cuts her off, killing himself only a few months later.
Michael Cerveris is heart-wrenching in his portrayal of a man denying his own homosexuality. Since he cannot control his own sexuality, he becomes controlling over his family, making everyone miserable. Judy Kuhn is outstanding as the physically present and emotionally absent mother, who just continues to play Chopin on the piano and ignores the reality of having a gay husband. At the end of the show, the audience learns that she has known about her husband’s sexuality all along, but she operates under the idea that it doesn’t exist if it isn’t acknowledged.
Kron and Tesori have written a phenomenal score and book, weaving the music and script together so beautifully. One of the highlights of the show is the children making a commercial for their family business entitled “Come to the Fun Home.” The commercial scene is worth the ticket price; the audience can’t help singing and bouncing along to the infectious song.
It doesn’t seem likely that a lesbian cartoonist with a closeted gay funeral director dad who commits suicide would be a great Broadway musical, but it is. A story about finding yourself and accepting the flaws of your parents will always be relevant. When you add the elements of suicide and generational homosexuality, the story becomes even more touching in the current climate of LGBTQ kids killing themselves. Fun Home is playing at the Circle in the Square Theatre and has an open run, so if you are in NYC, run to the theater. Watch for it to win the Best Musical at the Tony Awards on Sunday, June 7th.