Overview
Synopsis
The Tony Award-winning musical Fun Home traces the coming-of-age of lesbian author Alison Bechdel, from her youth, to her years at Oberlin College, and finally to the present, where Alison, now grown, is struggling to write her own graphic autobiography. As Alison reflects on her past, she struggles to make sense of it, particularly her relationship with her father, Bruce, a closeted gay man and the owner of the family business -- the Bechdel Funeral Home (“fun” home, as it’s known to young Alison and her brothers, John and Christian). As she watches her father’s self-loathing consume him, Alison recognizes her own experience of discovering, and ultimately embracing, her identity. As Fun Home progresses, Alison is drawn deeper and deeper into her memories, finally entering into them, desperate (but unable) to reverse her father’s self-destruction. An unforgettable and groundbreaking musical, Fun Home explores the haunting pull of memory and the power it has to alternately destroy or shape, our identity.
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Context
In 2006, lesbian cartoonist Alison Bechdel published Fun Home, a graphic memoir tracing her relationship to her closeted gay father, who committed suicide shortly after Bechdel, herself, came out as a lesbian to her parents. The book was both a critical and commercial success, spent two weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list and garnered numerous award nominations, including the National Book Critics Circle Award. The memoir is non-linear, tracing the adult Alison Bechdel’s own process
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Note: Fun Home the musical, like Bechdel’s original memoir, is nonlinear and circuitous. This is a memory play, and Alison is at once the catalyst for the memories, an observer of them, and, in some instances, a participant. Bechdel describes the structure as labyrinthine: “going over the same material, but starting from the outside and spiraling into the center of the story.”
Alison Bechdel, a forty-something lesbian cartoonist, is examining a box of her father's collected "junk." As she
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Character Portrayals
See StageAgent members who have performed roles in Fun Home.
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Songs
- It All Comes Back (Opening): Small Alison, Alison, Bruce, and Company
- Welcome to our House on Maple Avenue: Helen, Alison, Small Alison, John, Christian, Bruce, and Roy
- Not Too Bad: Medium Alison
- *Come to the Fun Home: Small Alison, Christian, John
- Helen’s Etude: Alison, Helen, Bruce, Roy, Small Alison, Medium Alison, John, and Christian
- Party Dress: Bruce, Small Alison, Medium Alison
- Changing my Major: Medium Alison
- Maps: Alison
- *Raincoat of Love: Bobby Jeremy and Company
- Ring of Keys: Small Alison
- Days and Days: Helen
- Telephone Wire: Alison and Bruce
- Edges of the World: Bruce
- Flying Away: Alison, Medium Alison, and Small Alison
A song with an asterisk (*) before the title indicates a dance number; a character listed in a song with an asterisk (*) by the character's name indicates that the character exclusively serves as a dancer in this song, which is sung by other characters.
Key Terms
A genre that centers LGBTQ+ characters and themes, challenging heteronormative narratives and celebrating diverse identities in performance.
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