There's A Song About it
May 6, 2015 2:00 PM   Subscribe

 
Many thumbs up!
posted by antiquated at 2:12 PM on May 6, 2015


I really want to see this because I love women-loving-women and I love Alison and her Dykes to Watch Out For and I love musicals. I loved the book and that 'ring of keys' moment is such an incredibly resonant description of that kind of ... experience of recognition.
posted by rmd1023 at 2:12 PM on May 6, 2015


This is a thing that exists? This is a thing that exists? THIS IS A THING THAT EXISTS AND I DO NOT EXIST NEAR IT?
posted by Going To Maine at 2:15 PM on May 6, 2015 [7 favorites]


Official Website
posted by Going To Maine at 2:19 PM on May 6, 2015 [1 favorite]


Please go on tour. Please go on tour. Please go on tour. Please go on tour. Please go on tour. Please go on tour. Please go on tour. Please go on tour. Please go on tour. Please go on tour. Please go on tour. Please go on tour. Please go on tour. Please go on tour.
posted by kyrademon at 2:24 PM on May 6, 2015 [7 favorites]


AND I DO NOT EXIST NEAR IT

WHY ARE YOU NOT GOING TO NYC RIGHT NOW? WHY?
posted by rmd1023 at 2:24 PM on May 6, 2015 [1 favorite]


You can stream the soundtrack on the website.
posted by Going To Maine at 2:29 PM on May 6, 2015 [1 favorite]


Holy Moses the local library has a copy of the soundtrack and I am at the local library and now I have a copy of the soundtrack.
posted by Going To Maine at 2:47 PM on May 6, 2015 [3 favorites]


Yay, flying to NYC Friday and seeing this Friday night.
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 2:48 PM on May 6, 2015 [4 favorites]


Oh man, "Changing My Major" is baller.
posted by Going To Maine at 2:52 PM on May 6, 2015 [3 favorites]


Fun Home is perfect. Everything about it is done as well as any human could do it.
posted by Mavri at 3:00 PM on May 6, 2015


I'd give just about anything to see this live. If I had a million dollars I'd be flying myself and my partner and my friends to New York to see it. I've been listening to the soundtrack for months-- the final duet between "Alison" and her father is heartbreaking. Among a hundred other moments. But yes, to see, in mainstream (for lack of a better word) culture people who I recognize, who I "know", who think and live like me... there are hardly words.

And then you think of all the boys and all the superhero comics that cater to them, and how they become used to seeing images of themselves, or as they'd like to be, and how potent it must be for children to see their desires validated in such a way... and you understand something about entitlement.

At least I had Harriet the Spy.
posted by jokeefe at 3:03 PM on May 6, 2015 [4 favorites]


I think "Ring of Keys" is my favorite song ever to appear in a Broadway show, but so many of the songs that are in this show are brilliant.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 3:06 PM on May 6, 2015




On "Come To The Fun Home" I can't but think that Little Allison is channeling Carrie Brownstein across time.
posted by Going To Maine at 3:30 PM on May 6, 2015


I caught this at the Public and loved it. It was hilarious and touching. I am really thrilled that it transferred to Broadway and has done so well. And gotten such recognition!

I mean, each of the three people playing Alison (small, medium, and adult) received a Tony nomination. That's fantastic.


And I did not realize that a cast recording had been made! And it comes out in a couple weeks!
posted by mountmccabe at 3:36 PM on May 6, 2015 [1 favorite]


mountmccabe, Judy Kuhn and Michael Cerveris were nominated as well,which is basically unheard of in one cast.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 3:39 PM on May 6, 2015


I misunderstood: An off-Broadway cast recording came out February 2014; there is a Broadway cast recording/update coming out in a couple weeks.

And yes, Judy Kuhn and Michael Cerveris, too. Plus seven other nominations. Really impressive.
posted by mountmccabe at 4:04 PM on May 6, 2015


Fun Home is one of my favourite books (and the sequel, Are You My Mother? even more so). I listened to the cast recording yesterday, not expecting much because of my general dislike of musicals, and it devastated me. I was weeping by the fourth track and continued right through to the end.

The novel is so well-constructed and tells the story masterfully, but it's never hit me quite so hard emotionally. But these incredible songs–the power of them, especially that pounding beat in Ring of Key's hook–made the tragedy of the story so, so real. I felt the weight of the waste of all the LGBT lives lived in shame and self-hatred, not to mention the ruinous effect the (understandable) lies had on people like Helen, whose song Days and Days and Days is one of the most affecting.

I hope that the show is so successful that they can export it to places like the UK, so I can see it. An original cast DVD would be wonderful, too. I'm so glad this show exists.
posted by aedison at 4:09 PM on May 6, 2015 [2 favorites]


I've been seriously thinking about flying to NYC just to see this and Hamilton. On the one hand, that's a lot of money, and we had a mini vacation in NYC just a few years ago, but goddamn I want to see those shows sooooo bad.
posted by kmz at 4:17 PM on May 6, 2015


kmz, live theater I didn't see has more entries in my Life Regrets list than anything else. Go for it.
Though I think Hamilton is closed until July.
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 4:32 PM on May 6, 2015


(Yeah, it's moving from the Public to the Rodgers. I was thinking late summer/early fall trip.)
posted by kmz at 4:36 PM on May 6, 2015


It's astonishingly good, and everyone in it is perfect.
posted by Ragged Richard at 5:53 PM on May 6, 2015


There was a cast recording that came out somewhere around last November.

"I'm changing my major to Joan" is a great description of young lust/love.
posted by rmd1023 at 6:25 PM on May 6, 2015


Have any of you seen "Fun Home" in the current venue? The seating chart looks like it is staged in the round (well, in the oval) - how sad will I be if I don't sit in the evidently-more-nominally-front section?
posted by rmd1023 at 6:37 PM on May 6, 2015


I saw it in the current venue. It is in the round. The theater is pretty small, so even if you're in the back, you're not that far from the stage. (That being said, I would like to see it again in the front row just to see what it's like. I imagine the in the round staging would make it feel like you're in their living room with them.) More important than your distance from the stage is being on one of the long sides of the oval. The staging is so brilliantly done that I doubt there's a bad seat in the house, but I think the perspective is probably better on the long sides.
posted by Mavri at 6:48 PM on May 6, 2015


I saw it at the Public and wept like the little girl I once was, and I am seeing it again in one short week and I have listened to the soundtrack over and over and pretty much yes, yes all of you should spend your money to come to New York and see it and I say that as an cheap midwestern person who doesn't spend money except for things like this and you should, too. Ok? Ok.
posted by minervous at 7:19 PM on May 6, 2015


The Double X Gabfest recently had an interview with Alison Bechdel that people in this thread would like. (I was going to be more descriptive but come on, if you're here then this is the sort of thing you would enjoy.)
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:19 PM on May 6, 2015


Okay, so I saw this post and thought "Oh, awesome, someone linked to my Fun Home review."

But this even better! By which I mean that not only is it a better review than the one that I drew, but it's also exciting because I'm going to interview Sara Lautman on Friday at the Queers and Comics Conference panel about Non-Fiction Comics. (Alison Bechdel will be giving the keynote speech on Friday night.)

This musical is so good, and I'm super-excited that I'll get to talk about it with other cartoonists soon!
posted by Bill_Roundy at 9:44 PM on May 6, 2015 [2 favorites]


Saw it at the Public and it melted this cis het white male's cold stone heart.
posted by whuppy at 6:17 AM on May 7, 2015


Holy shit, wow, is this what representation feels like? Because. Wow.
posted by fiercecupcake at 7:22 AM on May 7, 2015 [3 favorites]


And now I've gone and listened to the whole soundtrack and it is so perfect I can't even believe that it's real.
posted by fiercecupcake at 8:36 AM on May 7, 2015


This literally got the momentum started again on our summer NYC trip. I will be buying tickets this week.
posted by Theta States at 11:22 AM on May 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


Fun Home run now extended through early January 2016, and they say it will tour in 2016-17.
posted by larrybob at 1:37 PM on May 29, 2015 [2 favorites]


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