If you’ve been paying attention to Broadway this year, there’s an obvious frontrunner for the Tony Awards (and no, despite how much I’ve been talking about it here and in real life, it’s not Hamilton, which doesn’t start its Broadway run till later this summer). It’s another show that started at the Public Theater, a musical based on Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel memoir Fun Home. Before seeing the show, I knew this: Alison Bechdel created the Bechdel test*, she’s a lesbian, her father committed suicide, and she grew up in a funeral home (hence, Fun Home).
*To pass the Bechdel test, a film must have two named female characters who talk to each other about something other than a man. Sadly not that many movies pass the test!
Fun Home is a one-act musical performed in the round at Circle in the Square Theatre. From its format to its subject matter to its cast, which includes Alison at three different ages, it’s a unique production.
