The Bittersweet History of Fun Home on Broadway
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- Опубликовано: 3 авг 2024
- By all accounts, Fun Home never stood a chance on Broadway. It was a unorthodox story with a meager budget and a tiny theater. So did Fun Home defy the odds to become a smash? And what can this story tell us about the future of Broadway and society as a whole?
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Chapters
0:00 Caption.
3:27 Beech Creek
6:29 The Graphic Novel
9:43 A Musical?
12:38 Sundance (Part 1)
16:00 The Public (Part 1)
18:43 Sundance (Part 2)
19:49 The Public (Part 2)
22:08 A Father & A Daughter
24:38 Off Broadway
28:36 Trouble
30:00 Pre Broadway
34:00 You're Crazy
35:42 The Underdog
41:38 More than a Show
44:18 It All Comes Back 
Развлечения
Have you seen Fun Home? Do you have a Ring of Keys story? Comment below, I'd love to hear your thoughts and I'll be responding to as many as I can!
Huge shoutout to Carolee Beck for producing another fantastic song for this doc. You can save "Lost Wishes" now: bit.ly/3u4pX6t
This video is the end result of nine months of work. Given the huge commitment, the only way I can keep making big documentaries like this is with the help of viewers like you through Patreon. Learn more: www.patreon.com/waitinthewings
Seeing Fun Home during my honeymoon vacation will always be one of my greatest memories.
Do what went wrong with Charlie and the chocolate factory on broadway
Can we start calling it broadway again
Thank you so much for making this wonderful video! Fun Home is one of my favorite musicals, and it remains criminally underrated in my opinion.
I was not aware of all the history behind the production - it makes their achievements even more impressive and meaningful.
Fun Home was the very last show I saw on Broadway. Funnily enough, just a few days before, I had come out to someone for the first time of my life.
It was a person I had just met and that I would probably never see again, so I decided to test the waters and say out loud this thing that I had been mulling over.
Admitting - even to myself - that I wasn't straight was all very new to me.
I remember liking Fun Home and being happy to see it. Yet for a while, it mostly stayed at the back of my mind.
As the years went by and as I came to terms with my sexuality, I kept coming back to Fun Home more and more - the cast recording, the videos I could find on the Internet.
I eventually read Alison's book, which instantly became a favorite, and my love for the musical kept growing.
The story that still felt slightly foreign to me as a baby bi ended up resonating with me so much more than I anticipated.
Today I can barely talk about either the musical or the book without crying - and I definitely cried watching your video.
Thank you again for shining a light on how important and amazing this show is.
worst musical ive ever seen, me and my family still make jokes about ring of keys and telephone wire to this day, not to mention the awful opening scene. maybe we just caught it on an off-night but oh my god. i thought it was terrible but despite that, watching it is one of my fondest memories I've had of seeing a play or show or anything
Sydney's Tony performance is one I'll always remember. To have all the flashy, huge numbers that year, but to have a young girl basically by herself, singing about self discovery be the standout performance is so poignant. Fun Home is one of the most honest, beautiful, heartbreaking shows out there.
When I saw the show, I read an article about how Sydney’s mom was freaking out about her performing like that. Sydney’s brother was also on Broadway at the same time (in King and I).
I sat on my couch and cried after that performance because I couldn't believe (in the best possible way) that a Broadway show would let their big TV moment rest on the shoulders of a little girl... who then hit it out of the park. I had assumed they'd do Come to the Fun Home and I love that they didn't.
What I find so interesting about Fun Home as queer representation is that in some ways it is very far from what people usually put forward as "good" representation. A central aspect of the book/musical is the character of Bruce, who is gay and is abusive to his kids, cheats on his wife, acts as a predator towards underaged boys- something that's a major negative stereotype about gay men- and in the end he kills himself rather than accept who he truly is.
And yet it works, because it's presented as a foil to Allison's story, who is able to discover and accept her identity in the ways he never could, and because the play consistently presents Bruce with this deep sense of empathy and pathos. We understand a bit of why he feels the way he feels and does what he does, how the internalized homophobia of his time constrained him and made him bitter, and the ultimate portrayal is of a tragic figure we can feel for even as he does terrible things.
And I think this is actually so powerful? Because so often with queer representation- and minority representation in general- we feel the need to have these idealized portrayals, free of any negative stereotypes and implications, to counter previous negative ideas people have. So to have a musical like this, that presents not only the joys and triumphs of queer identity but also the parts that are messy and imperfect, in a way that's raw and honest? That's something rare and special.
I feel like as much as we're drowning in bad representation by outsiders, people from the community and allies trying to have buff-to-sheen "good representation" are hurting us in a different way. Those portrayals can make us feel like failures if we're not living the ideal, happy queer life. At worst, they make pseudo-allies judge us for not being "the good ones" who are happy and positive, so our discontentment in the face of oppression gets written off as pettiness. It's model minority workings but with fictional characters. Bechdel and the team who adapted this pulled off exactly what you said just by being honest.
@@TheSaltyLibrarian Uh, no. Like, not at all. I want to stamp that right out. We're not "hurting ourselves" by demanding good representation, especially when the majority we've gotten from allies is piss-poor and many in the community think "self-loathing" is a personality trait. That shit is like when White Moderates claiming to be "progressive" whine "We're eating our own" when we try to hold our own accountable (a fucking virus of a mentality pushed by Breadtube personalities like Natalie Wynn and Lindsay Ellis because they don't like being made to "feel bad" when they make a brainless hot take or show their true colors as Transmedicalist or racist scum). This handwringing over "these positive portrayals can make us feel like failures for not living up to blah blah blah" is unnecessarily policing each other for not being as miserable as the straights want us to be. We do it to ourselves. Morons are too busy worrying over how cishet people perceive us that we willingly silence each other and force each other into bullshit respectability politics, because some people would rather cut out their own vocal chords than make waves. No fucking thanks. We deserve good, positive representation as much as any other marginalized group and it's irritatingly tone-deaf that sanctimonious martyrs like you have the nerve to say "it would do more harm than good", because you're obsessed with "showing the reality of LGBT folx" to please the straights that want hugs and reassuring whispers that they're good allies when they do shit like introduce gay characters and immediately kill them off in the same episode (Voltron), or they romanticize an abusive relationship between two lesbians and gay folx huffing copium laud it as "The Slow Burn Romance We've Been Starving For" (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power), or watching a trans character get violently gang-r*ped and later brutally murdered because they're trans and "it's more realistic to the trans experience" (Boys Don't Cry). FUCK. THAT.
This is a wonderful way to put it
i think it's very strange that some ppl call fun home "bad representation", because it's not just some made up fictional story, this is the life of a real person who had to live through these events
The opening/closing always hits me hardest. The weirdest thing with these relationships is the little good memories you have especially when you're younger. The show represents it brilliantly, top 4 forever. Legendary content as always, thank you
Freakin SAAAMMEEE. Thank you so much AJ.
literally. i cant listen to it without crying
CATRA????
When I saw this production on Broadway I had recently graduated from Lock Haven University. As we entered the auditorium a woman sitting beside me noticed that I had on my class of 2015. She asked if I had gone to Lock Haven and I answered that I had. As it would turn out she and a rather large group of people had all come down from Lock Haven that day to see the show the significance of this being that Lock Haven is approximately ten minutes give or take from Beech Creek PA where the majority of the show it set and where Alison Bechdel grew up. So after she finished telling me they had all come down from Lock Haven she goes on to tell me that there are relatives of Alison's in the audience and points to a man, asking how he is related to Alison. He says :she was my cousin", then pointing to another woman says, "Mom was Bruce's sister."
The idea of watching the show sitting a few rows in front of Bruce Bechdel's sister is a thing that will resonate and haunt me to this day. It was a spectacular experience made that much more real.
A fabulous video as always!
What an incredible story and from my visit there, Lock Haven and that area really is a tight knit community. So cool.
Hi, I played middle alison in the philippines run of fun home a few years ago. I gotta say, of all the shows i’ve done this one has stuck with me like no other. This video though would have been SO helpful in the preparation days leading up to our premier. These insights were absolutely LOVELY. Thank you. And now i’m off to listen the soundtrack yet again. Readying my tissues.
Oh! And a fun little bit of info! My little sister played small Alison! And lea salonga played helen. It was quite the experience, to say the least.
@@mikkievolante I wish there was a bootleg of this!!
I actually remember this when it played. It was all over the headlines that lea was going to be in this amazing musical
Aaah, I still remember how you guys made me cry from the audience especially during the Flying Away Finale.
I saw your show twice and was blown away. Ive never seen anything like that before. When your sister sang her first chorus in the diner, I just lost it: a grown up man in the audience was bawling over a little girl singing about the experience of identification. Please tell her my heart says "hi."
her father was majorly flawed and they weren't afraid to shy away from it, and i'm glad that she was willing to put him out to the world in such a way. i wish this musical was treated similarily to Rent or other major musicals in being remembered especially with a lesbian main 'character'
I love how you shine a light on the very specific marketing choices made on this musical. You even got footage in there at 30:45 of my 'favorite' marketing smoke and mirrors trick they did with this masterpiece of a show. Not marketing the show on the music, the message, or the representation but instead on how anywhere you sit inside the Circle in the Square theatre is a good seat. That was it. That was the WHOLE ad. "Come see Fun Home, every seat is a good view here."
The character of Alison was groundbreaking representation in so many ways. It's so easy to get swept up in the fear mongering we see so much of today. Knowing the monsters trying to portray queer people as filthy predators are dead wrong doesn't make it easy not to internalise this hatred, this shameful feeling whenever we feel attraction to the same gender.
Ring of Key serves as a more than precious reminder that love can be, and often is, innocent, giddy. The kind of reminder you didn't know you needed but which lifts a weight of your chest like nothing ever has. And Middle Alison completes it by showing the joy there is to be found in embracing yourself.
The fact that Sydney Lucas became one of the youngest Tony nominees ever speaks volumes to her talent. She did little nuances in her Tonys performance that take actors years to learn how to do. I hope she goes far someday.
This was one of the first Broadway shows I ever saw. My theater friend who I was visiting gave me the choice between Fun Home or Waitress, and I chose Fun Home because the post made it seem like some sort of light hearted comedy. Right as the lights were dimming, I asked my friend "wait, this is a comedy right?" and I'll never forget her expression haha
god, I went to see this when it was on tour in seattle and somehow got a lower level seat on $20 student tickets, had me absolutely bawling by about 20 minutes in for reasons that I didn't understand until I started to figure out that I was queer a year later, shoutout to the older lesbian couple a few seats over who 100% clocked what was going on and kept handing me tissues.
fantastic doc as always! I'm gonna go listen to the soundtrack and cry again
If you'd wanna watch the musical instead of just the soundtrack...
**looks around to see no one is listening...whispers** theres a copy of it on youtube called How To Make A Cheesecake With Only A Handful Of Cheese (Fun Home Edition) 😉
@@Zeffer32 that's absolutely hilarious lmao, thank you! I've always wanted to see the broadway staging, they changed it up for the tour so it could work in a standard theater (but the way they used the house set was still really cool)
@@Zeffer32 Thank you! That cheesecake recipe was really delicious!
I don't think I could ever express how deeply this production resonated with me. It's the one and only musical I can't seem to move on from no matter how much time passes. It is such an unbelievable achievement to have translated so efficiently the poignant lyrical tale of the book on stage.
Michael Cerveris' performance tore me apart in all the best ways. It is incredible how he nailed the part down to the heavy breaths and pauses. He absolutely deserved the Tony. I couldn't breathe watching his performance.
I remember seeing the Fun Home tony performance and later a performance of “Changing my Major” on one of the late night shows, and I was just awed by how honest and beautiful it was.
this show, and getting to see it live in 2015, changed so much for me as a young closeted and scared lesbian. it introduced me to people i felt i could connect with and interpret myself through. ring of keys, specifically, gave me something i needed that I didnt know was missing. It also gave me a new love of cartooning and comics (well comics that weren't batman). i really dont know how to articulate how happy i am to see this show discussed I feel it was too easily forgotten and swept away by broadway , with its quiet simplicity and butch lesbian leanings, so its wonderful to remember that this show has impacted others the way it impacted me
As a Sapphic, Fun Home made me feel seen. Outside of Rent, I couldn't name another musical that has queer women characters. When Small Alison sung about "Short hair, dungarees, lace-up boots" I felt like she was singing to me :-)
I love this show so much. Michael Cerveris is a longtime friend and as luck would have it, my seat was on the floor directly in front of where he sang the end of Edges of the World. Trying to contain my wracking sobs was a huge challenge. I thought I had it under control. After the show, Micheal said, "you were having a hard time during Edges of the World, weren't you?" The show broke me in the best possible way. You captured the beauty of the show perfectly. Thank you for your attention to detail and the incredible research you do.
I’m around Sydney Lucas’s age and I remember seeing that performance on tv in 2015. It made such an impact on me that I remembered the song “Ring of Keys” for months before I figured out which musical it was from. I was lucky enough to see it on Broadway (my first Broadway show) when I was 13 when Gabriella Pizzolo was Young Alison and it changed my view of and relationship with theater forever. It holds such a special place in my heart and is I’m so glad it’s getting more attention even six years later.
As a lifelong musical theatre enthusiast and huge Fun Home fan, I already knew most of this backstory, but I didn’t know it the way you told it. You are a masterful story teller. Engaging while still being informative. Emotionally connective without being needlessly dramatic for views. Objective without being dispassionate. Absolutely wonderful job on this video.
Outstanding job with this video, no surprise there your content remains some of the best on the entire website. I am an emotional wreck and it's a wonderful thing thank you for the incredible work you do and thank you for that ending note
Thank you so much for the kind words, and for being so open with your story. You're a freakin inspiration. :)
I really appreciate how you handled this, especially at the end with talking about the continued attacks on the queer community. I felt so bittersweet when you talked about the legalization of same-sex marriage because I know how far we still have to go
To this day, Sydney Lucas’s Tony Awards performance remains one of my all-time favorites. Halfway through “Ring of Keys”, I knew that I had to buy the soundtrack and learn everything there was to know about this show. I’ve only had that experience one other time: watching rehearsal footage of Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel singing “For Good”! Thank you for another amazing video about a show that holds a very special place in my heart ❤️
The very night that Fun Home won the 2015 Tony for Best Musical I got on the phone and bought a front row seat for my upcoming trip to NYC that September.
I saw the show right after Gabriella Pizzolo (now know for playing Suzy in Stranger Things) took over the role of Young Allison. Also, the audience that night was Carol Burnett which I didn’t find out about until after the show when we were waiting for the cast to come out of the theatre. I was there to see Michael Cerveris who gave us a private backstage tour of Evita in 2012 and congratulated him on his Tony win as the 2015 Best Actor in a Musical for Fun Home.
Oh! I just watched Season 4 and I hadn't realized that Suzie is the Little Allison I saw. So we already know that all 4 of the boys can sing, and now her too. I would like aa Stranger Things musical episode please... Buffy did it...
(I also decided I needed to see Fun Home after watching the Tony's performance. I send that video to people all the time.)
I saw Fun Home early last year at the Sydney Theatre Company and I genuinely cried at multiple points throughout the show - nearly started with the moment that Alison (played by Lucy Maunder, iirc) walked out on stage for the first time, just from the sheer emotion of seeing someone that looked so similar to who I consider to be My People. The production's design was completely different from Broadway but it was so beautiful and it was the first time I ended up seeing a show for a second time. Every single moment hit me straight in the heart. The whole cast were phenomenal. I wish I had gone even more times. I go to the theatre a lot (I've been to most of the major musicals that have been to Sydney in the last few years + quite a few little Aussie shows) but Fun Home is unquestionably one of the best shows I've ever seen. It had such a deep effect on me - something very healing about songs like Ring of Keys and Changing My Major that celebrate the lesbian experience and queer joy, even in the middle of a show that gets very heavy.
Anyway. That was a long ramble (clearly, I have strong feelings about this musical), but this is a really interesting video, I love your channel. It's so fun to learn about theatre, especially videos like this one where I get to find out more about my favourite shows. ✌
I am genuinely crying. It's honestly a beautiful story, and I'm really glad that the dad is characterized with the compassion and nuance he needed to humanize him.
Thank you thank you thank you so much for this deep dive into Fun Home. From the moment I read the book in 2006 when it came out, it changed the way I thought about my life and family (too many parallels to mention). The news of a musical version astonished me, and I was in tears watching the Tony performance. I finally got to see it staged a few years ago here in Portland and it quickly entered my pantheon of the great musicals. Your writing on this video is so insightful and moving. And, to see the interiors of the Bechdel home was a revelation--I realize now I had only ever seen Alison's drawings. Bravo! Congrats! You have truly topped yourself with this video. Thank you!
Thank you so much Corey! Fun Home in any form is just incredible and seeing the house in person makes you understand it that much more.
There aren’t enough words in the world to describe the impact this musical has had on me and Broadway as a whole, and to see a channel I absolutely love take such care in discussing it and it’s history is a dream come true. Keep up the amazing work!
In my graphics narrative class last semester we spent weeks studying Fun Home, it has grown to become one of my favorite graphic novels of all time. My professor had mentioned that their was a musical and we watched some clips, but I never got around to the full thing. Thanks for this video, felt like I was learning all about the book again and what it means to everyone.
It’s such a small point in this video overall, but the bit where Fun Home is a banned book for being inappropriate for people of certain ages (though to be honest a lot of the people calling for its banning are just leaning on the age thing as an excuse) is that it’s an autobiography. Specifically, about someone growing up from childhood going through the events of the story. The idea that an actual life that a young person has to go through and deal with and recover from can be considered too much for someone of a similar age to read about, just somehow melts my brain.
Not lying. I legit teared up at the end of this one. Excellent work, Brendan.
the production design of the in-the-round version, with the elevators, is absolutely amazing. it looks like this would have been a very cool production to see.
I won't be available for the premiere at that time so I'll have to watch it on my own later 😭 As a big Alison Bechdel admirer I am really excited!!!
I hope you enjoy!
I saw this with my mother off-Broadway. Coincidentally, I was visiting home during my first semester at Oberlin (just like the scene where Alison calls Bruce to complain about her pretentious professor).
When it was over, we talked about how good it was and around the subject until my mother asked me: "Was it that hard for you?"
I told her, "It's... hard for everyone. It's okay, Mom."
"In the middle of no where new jersey" that's literally Asbury park
I am begging you to do an episode about The Prom, I feel like it gets so much credit for doing what Fun Home did after Fun Home did it, without even centering the lesbian character it totes. I am super curious what the production journey was behind The Prom and whether it changed during its trajectory to the Broadway stage.
Thank you so much for this, I think I speak for many of the LGBTQ+ community when I say this musical and the source material are not only beautiful works of art but such important representation. The work you've put in to laying the story of this musical out is evident and so appreciated, your closing words gave me goosebumps and a ray of hope in these fucked up times of relentless attacks on the community. I'm at a loss for words really... I need to rewatch the musical then rewatch this and leave another comment for the engagement gods ;)
They really made every family that walked into that theater think that they were there for a fun time and then come out crying their eyes out
I saw Fun Home when Sydney Theatre Company picked it up. I was surprised. A theatre company known for its straight plays doing a sung-through show? I didn't know what to expect. As soon as Maggie Mckenna opened their mouth to perform 'Changing My Major', I sobbed. Their performance and the story hit me so hard. It has stuck with me forever.
What's incredible about seeing the Circle in the Square sets is that I literally recall exactly where I was seated when I saw it on a spring break when I was 15 years old in 2016. Fun Home was one of the first broadway musicals I listened to on loop after hearing the finale number in a playlist. I bought the graphic novel, I read so many pieces of articles and begged my mother to take me to this no name show she had no clue about. I broke down crying at the very first number at the introduction of Bruce Bechdel- I was seated very high up, at the edge of the second to last row on the East most side and looking straight forward I was placed directly across from the mark on the staircase where Bruce fixed his tie and sings out all he's hiding. It didn't matter that I was seeing Bruce's understudy or that I knew everything that would happen from all my listens and reading- what mattered was I could feel and see everything Bruce was going through. The horrible internalization, the fear and the hiding. It took one line of the musical for it to overwhelm me and it never stopped. It was heartbreaking and incredible and remember almost every second. I couldn't have been more overjoyed and I remember how loudly I cheered and laughed and how my face hurt grinning while watching 'Changing My Major'. I'm a trans man but I felt seen in Bechdal's raw representation of butchness and the openness of a lesbian protagonist. It astounded me and energized me in the best way and I can't thank it enough for all it's done. I was so honored to see it and feel every moment- especially the sudden joyous release of Ring of Keys- which deserves to be the declarative corner stone of the modern Broadway's power of empathy and representation.
i have been listening to changing my major on repeat for the past month, without knowing where it was from. so glad you made this vid cuz now i’m very invested in this musical
Sitting here in the first five minutes of the video just remembering what Ring of Keys did for me as a child made me burst into tears, and we haven’t even begun talking about the show 😭
I've listened to the cast recording of Fun Home so many times and every once in a while one song or another gives me a different take away. 'Welcome to Our House on Maple Avenue' hit me hard one day when I was just focusing the children's vocals and thinking how they had to make everything perfect and were low-key anxious with their dad ("make one wrong move and demons will seize him"). "Maps" hit me as a geography minor when I overanaylized "I can draw a circle, you lived your life inside". "Edge of the World"...broke me in a different way one day
I sat front row at the Boston performance of the Fun Home tour. The scene of Bruce’s death was absolutely incredible and truly shocking. Unbelievably immersive and touching show that has left a lasting impact on me and my peers. Props to the lighting, set, and sound crews.
What a wonderful story. This is what art is all about. Taking the artist's pain and turning it into joy for millions.
Watching this video, knowing nothing about Fun Home and then seeing my COLLEGE show up here is insane lolol, this happened a few years before I started there but still, glad to see CofC continue to be one of the few good things about SC
I finally had a chance to watch this and boy did I cry. In 2015, when I watched the Tony performance I was just blown away. So I got the soundtrack and all that summer I started listening to it. I also bought a ring of keys phone case because that song just hit me. It made me start to finally figure out my sexuality. I already was struggling to figure it out in 2011 but that year, it was the push. Then, many years later the South Korean adaptation happened. Luckily for me, I still am living here and I knew I had to see the show. A friend of mine went with me, even though we were sitting on opposite ends on the stage. Seating was on two sides and the set design was very similar to the other productions. But it was during Changing My Major (Korean edition) when it finally hit me about my sexuality. Sadly, the Korean production closed the month after I saw it so I never could see it again.
Also, I have a friend who was studying in New York when the show was on Broadway and she saw the show…21 times. And yes, she has seen the production in basically every angle possible.
I saw Fun Home in a Totally Legal way in 2015, and watched the rerun of the first international staging in Manila in 2017. This musical is so important to me. Changing My Major was pivotal in me coming to terms with my own sexuality as a 17-year old. I love how it touches on trauma and healing and joy and ughhh I... my favorite musical
When all is said and done, Judy Kuhn should have had at least one Tony by now!
The fact she didn't win for this is baffling
@@WaitintheWings Her Days And Days HAUNTS me.
@@fadhilramadhani1847 I listened to the soundtrack a bunch before seeing the show. I thought Days and Days was pleasant enough, but kind of boring. Sometimes I'd skip it. Then I saw Judy Kuhn perform it live. And your description is spot on - absolutely haunting. Now it's one of my favorite songs in the show.
I remember when I went to go see Fun Home as a young newly out lesbian I was crying at stage door because I felt so seen and when Michael Cerveris said that he was so happy to make me feel seen and provide that. It has stuck with me to this day.
It's remarkable how consistent the quality is on this channel. I'm always excited to see what you post next even though I've seen maybe 2 theater shows in the last decade
I was a student at CofC that year - While I was always a big theater fan and was lucky enough to se my fair share of theater where I grew up (DC) plus during trips to NY, I remember thinking it was the coolest thing that the cast came down to do those benefit performances.
My daughter was at CofC that year too. I remember being so mad that they couldn’t trust 18 year olds to read a friggin book that was not even required reading. That’s SC for you.
I’m seeing a lot of (well deserved) love for Sidney Lucas but want to take a moment to give some appreciate to Gabby Pizzolo, who replaced her as Small Alison. She had enormous shoes to fill (at least metaphorically) and she was phenomenal. If you haven’t seen her rendition of Ring of Keys performed at the White House, I highly recommend it.
Not me sitting here at 9 AM sobbing 😭 Well done
I had the privilege of seeing Fun Home on Broadway and it was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had. I saw it at the Old Vic in London a few years after and I was shocked by how different it felt. Fun Home will always have a special place in my heart and I was particularly impressed with Sydney Lucas who might be the most nuanced child actor I’ve seen on stage. Michael Ceveris (sp?) took my breath away, I can’t describe how incredible his performance was. It’s one of those shows I wish I could go back in time and watch all over again.
Fun Home means so much to me, and this video does it justice PERFECTLY. Thank you so so much for making this
Such a touching documentary. Thank you for telling the story of this Tony winning, yet woefully underrated musical.
I got to see Fun Home earlier this year in Melbourne as a part of my Theatre Studies class, and it truly is a sad relationship told in a beautiful way. Great to see quotes from the novel (and musical) to end up in this video, and great to know even more about the history of the wonderful production
This was a beautifully realized and clear-eyed examination of one of my favorite Broadway shows of all time. Happy Pride, and thank you so much.
Watching that performance of Ring of Keys at the Tony's was one of the most magical musical moments I've ever seen. I was ENTHRALLED by fun home, and bought the book soon after. I got to see this show through the 2018 Toronto production and it was absolutely magical and mesmerizing from start to finish. By the end of it I was a blubbering mess (granted, I did go see the show the night before my undergrad thesis was due, which also contributed to my heightened emotional experience). Thank you for allowing me to love this show even more !
I was fortunate enough to see it before it closed. This musical was the first time a Broadway show challenged my worldview. Truly a masterpiece.
Fun Home was my first introduction to truly appreciating theatre and the complexities of storytelling the way I do now. I saw it on tour when I was a teenager questioning my sexuality and trying to engage with the LGBTQ community, and what spoke to me the most was the father-daughter relationship and the parallels between Alison and Bruce. "My dad and I were exactly alike; my dad and I were nothing alike" articulates my relationship with my own dad with language I didn't have before, and the way the production was structured to get this very specific story across and make it universal fascinated me. In a way, this show was a Ring of Keys moment for me because it was the first musical I actively sought out and obsessed over and kicked my musical theatre interest into overdrive to make me who I am today.
i saw a high school production of this show and let me tell you. i cried for well over an hour. i cried for the last half hour of the show, i cried while i greeted my friends, i cried for maybe 20 minutes in my car before i even felt like i could see we’ll enough to drive, and then cried the whole half hour drive home. this show is so beautiful and hits me right through the heart. it hurts to watch because of how much i can relate to it (even in ways i wish i couldn’t) but it also is a joyous experience to watch because it lets me know that i’m not alone. probably my favorite musical of all time.
She was visiting my college during the opening night at the Public, I've stayed at that hotel that she was stuck in lol. When she told us what she was missing during her lecture we were all like "why are you here and not in New York??"
I want to give everyone involved with this show a big hug. Thank you for another great video WITW.
And now we stand on the precipice of the Supreme Court overturning their own previous decision on gay marriage being federally legal and citizens having a right to privacy in the bedroom and "sending it back to the states" when it comes to basic human rights for LGBTQ+ citizens. It's with that in mind that I found all the talk about the positive changes in the world in the video to be heartbreaking.
Sadly. But that doesn’t mean that we cannot give up the fight
I saw this at The Public October 2012. The early history of the production isn't talked about as much and am glad you brought it to light. In my opinion, it wasn't meant to be a flashy Broadway piece. It worked well in the very small intimate setting.
Fun Home is one of the few Broadway/American musicals I've ever seen performed live. I saw the Manila production with Lea Salonga as Helen (Alison's mother), and Cris Villongco as Big Alison, We came in thinking it would a light fun show (bc of the word "Fun" in the title plus the Manila production's marketing took a similar angle as the Broadway production by not really mentioning much about the plot, and playing up the cutesy, family-friendly facade) and holy crap, I had never felt so seen as a gay man with a strained relationship with my father. This was such an important show to me and as it turns out, for American musical theatre and seeing it talked about like this is so cool.
Was this musical recieved well in the philippines too?
Alas, despite being queer I have no Ring of Keys moment. No big 'eureka,' where it all instantly came together that I was neither straight nor cis. Instead it was more like, a long series of slow realizations that that which was normal for me... was definitely not normal for everyone else. Not just with my sexuality and gender, but also the realization I was autistic.
I went from assuming sexual attraction was a literary device used by lazy writers who wanted to get their romantic leads together quickly, to assuming 18 was the age of majority because it was when sexual attraction flipped on like a switch, to learning about asexuality and aromanticism and thinking 'huh, interesting,' to years later realizing 'Wait, am I ace??' and then 'Wait, am I aro???'
A similarly slippery slope for my gender, hilariously capped off by the realization that I have a long list of male characters in movies I want to play someday and... maybe one or two female characters XD
Eureka moments are dramatic in a way that people like, similar to how people also love the narrative of the lone genius. 'Born this way' is also a popular narrative, and it's a needed one in many ways. But slow discoveries, and late discoveries, are also important narratives. It's okay to take your time in figuring out who you are and who you like. It's okay if your journey doesn't match the pretty, popular narratives, if it's messy and weird and wouldn't make a cute teen coming-of-age story. It's okay to figure it out when you're middle aged or older. It's okay to never figure it out, so long as you're happy with yourself. What's important is that people have the space, freedom, and safety to figure this stuff out and be themself every step of the way.
Fun Home's story is a very messy story. I love it, and I'm glad it exists and can be heard by so very many people.
This is the tribute that this life-changing musical deserves, thank you.
I was lucky enough to see Fun Home during the circle in the square run for my fifteenth birthday. Tonight I sit in my childhood bedroom watching this video under the playbill I’ve had hung up on my wall since. Thank you for reminding me of the beautiful heartbreak of this show in such an excellent video. Cannot wait for the next one, much love WITW!
I had the experience of seeing "Fun Home" early in its run at the Public Theater. I went because I as a stage manager had previously worked with both Sam Gold and Lisa Kron and I wanted to support their new work. I had no idea what it was about. As I sat there in the dark watching the show unfold before my eyes, I was amazed. It was different than all the other shows that are about gay issues that me a straight white cis male couldn't understand, this was a human story, and for the first time I really understood what gay individuals of all ages go through each day. Sometimes in the theater, you have the opportunity to be there when a show changes the whole landscape of theater. This was such a time!
This musical won the Tony during my own coming out journey, I was also in, what I felt like, was a very heteronormative drama program. This video was painful to watch, but it really solidified how powerful this musical is, not just to my terrified closeted self, but to all queer humans (and we need more queer women stories on Broadway- even now)
Omg! Don’t watch this while you’re at work. …I’m standing here crying. So moving! 😭 ❤️
I remember hearing “ring of keys” at the Tony awards and just being so moved.
I saw Fun Home when it came to the UK a few years ago and have rarely been so moved and stunned by a piece of theatre - Telephone Wire is such a powerful song and the whole story the show tells is so important, poignant and surprisingly uplifting even with the darker moments. So glad this won the Tony! The Circle in the Square production sounds like an ingenious bit of set design that I wish I'd seen for myself, but to me this stands on its own as an excellent musical and a piece of theatre that has really stuck with me and that I'd love the chance to see again.
This kind of story telling is exactly why I am so proud to be a patron of this channel. I have followed the journey of Fun Home for some time as well as your journey into creating this piece. Thank you so much for devoting the time and research into exploring this ground breaking show! I know we have a long way to go, but this show meant a lot to many. Much love!!
This is an amazing video! Thank you so much for your hard work on it. I adore this musical, and it's so nice to have this deep dive.
I got free tickets to see the touring cast when they were in Minneapolis some years back because I'd complained to the stage manager about the poor sound mix when my hubs and I were at that same theatre to see Wicked a few months prior. Out of all the shows we got to choose from, this was the one that I wanted to see the most and my spouse was a little indifferent because he doesn't like musicals. We were both blown away by the show.
i saw fun home on tour as i was coming to terms with my bisexuality, this show put the biggest smile on my face, getting to see women loving other women, it really helped me
I appreciate how much detail you put into these videos. Incredible.
Oh, I wasn't expecting to cry over a Waiting In The Wings video, but here we are. Thank you 💖
Working on this show for its North Carolina premiere last year was truly life changing. This is an incredible piece and will be remembered forever.
I saw Fun Home when it was first at Circle in the Square. I loved every minute of it, but I couldn’t figure out what number they would showcase for the Tonys. Seeing Sydney Lucas belt out “Ring of Keys” that night is something I’ll never forget. One of the best moments in Tony history.
If I were to describe Fun Home in one word it would be: a rollercoaster (well, technically two words, but you get it). I saw this as my SECOND ever show on broadway, and I had NO idea what to expect. In fact, this was my very first theatre-in-the-round experience, too!
This show was both hilarious and depressing, while still keeping the through line of everything being surrounded by, and in a funeral home. The closest show that I can think of that surrounds death would probably be The Addams Family, but that isn’t close enough to what Fun Home achieved. Fun Home looked at death straight (or gayly) in the face and said, “YOU, you’re gonna be a star!” Me and my dad were both in shambles and excited all at the same time! This show actually helped me identify who I was (lesbian at the times, bc I didn’t know any other sexualities besides gay, or straight; and now Bisexual!) And to top it off, the show was RIGHT FREKIN NEXT TO WICKED!!?! The show that made me fall in love with theatre. That was a night hat I’ll never ever forget! Highly recommend at least listening to the sound track bc it’s very underrated!
this video was beautifully written and presented. I dont know how you do it but I was blown away by your storytelling and I teared up watching this video
I learned so much from this video. Thank you for your hard work and dedication, and for choosing this story to tell. Throughout the video, you threaded in the story of queer life, rights and representation. The hopeful tone you had when describing how our society was becoming more accepting as Allison was growing up, and how our marriage rights were found constitutional, had me feeling extremely bittersweet after the recent overturning and the subsequent unveiled threats to recall queer rights. I’m from Florida, and the Pulse shooting coverage and the mention of the don’t say gay bill had me in tears.
With Fun Home as the lynchpin, this video is a potent reminder of how LGBTQ+ life has changed in the past 50 years, and how we are still scrabbling to hold on to what we have gained. The video helps show that we need to keep filling the time that change takes by being visibly (and, somehow, still radically) queer, to urge that change along.
I saw the tour when it came through Dallas with my husband. He's not the biggest musical fan but he trusted me about interesting and different shows after taking him to Next to Normal. He really got emotionally invested in the show that he was quietly crying during Telephone Wire and didn't stop until the curtain call. It really connected with him and will always be one of my favorite shows. I just told a girl at Disneyland about it recently who was about to go to college for Musical Theatre.
Truly excellent production in this doc, thank you
Until now, I've never heard about this musical (this channel is getting me into the world of musicals but even I teared up when they won. What a beautiful, touching video. Well done.
When I go to NYC one of my favorite things to do is to hit up the TKTS booth to let the Theater Gods guide me to a show. One year I was able to get half-off tickets for front row seats at Fun Home. I had no idea what to expect; all I knew was that it had an excellent review in Time Out (and Time Out has rarely done me wrong so I had a good feeling about it). We got to the theater and I was pleasantly surprised by how small the theater was. We went down to our seats and found ourselves sitting smack dab in the middle of the Bechdel’s living room. So cool! Doing the production in the theater of the round was a genius decision. The audience members were all so close to each other and we were so close to the actors as well. It was one of the most intimate theater experiences I have ever had, and that was absolutely perfect because the story itself is so intimate. The show started and I was immediately enthralled by the kinetic movement of the piece and the charged emotions felt within. I was very touched by the relationship between father and daughter and I thought they did an incredible job fleshing out their complicated connection. I was charmed by the humor and heart of the piece. It was so fun to cackle uproariously at songs like Come to the Fun Home and Changing my Major, and it was amazing to hear life-changing songs like Ring of Keys. Needless to say, I was a blubbering mess at the end. 😭
Anyhow, I was absolutely transported that night and it was one of the best theater-going experiences I’ve ever had. 😻The Theater Gods were in a generous mood that day. 😸
Thank you for another wonderful video! You’re doing an awesome job.
This was beautiful and moving. Thank you for your passionate work in this video essay.
Incredible video as always. Thank you so much for reminding me how much I love this show.
This is my favorite video of yours so far. I knew very little about this musical, but you managed to fully convert me into a Fun Home fan
This was just stunning! What a seamless, professional, well thought through documentary. Absolutely in awe of the production quality and storytelling power of this video.
thank you for making this! I got very emotional watching it.
absolutely incredible video, thank you!
I consider myself fortunate to see Fun Home in the Philippines. I admit part of the reason for seeing it was Lea Salonga (she played the role of Bechdel's mom). I can still remember the spoken lines that start with "caption" as if that mood board still exists to remind me how much of a masterpiece Fun Home is.
Honestly when I saw Tony award performance I was interested and made me want to know more and honestly I had support lgbtq+ but now as of late I’m exploring my sexuality and I have to thank fun home for that.
Hell yes 👏👏👏
This was done so beautifully! Thank you! Fun Home is such a powerful show and truly incredible.
This made me cry, thanks for that! Seriously great video.
I was lucky enough to see this show back in 2017 and it was one of the most moving experiences I’ve ever had at the theatre. I will never forget it.