Fun Home (Broadway) NYC Reviews and Tickets

"The truth is that as personal as Bechdel’s tragic tale can be, it’s also a universal story of children refusing to believe that, hard as they try, they might never have the last word when it comes to their parents. It’s fitting that the show closes with a small moment in which little Alison and her father were as close as they ever would be. Sometimes it’s surprising to realize which things we remember vividly and which fade away."
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"Alison Bechdel’s provocative tale has now been translated to the stage in the extremely ambitious, extremely moving musical 'Fun Home.' While this show is hardly standard Broadway fare, this production, directed with great acuity by Sam Gold, is not just better than it was over a year ago at the Public Theater; it deserves to be the clear favorite for this year’s Tony Award for Best Musical."
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"'Fun Home' is, yes, a musical about a lesbian cartoonist whose closeted father killed himself, but it is also about how we try to figure out the puzzle of our parents; about how we reassemble our childhood; about memory itself. It remains the inventive, entertaining, in places exhilarating, and almost inexpressibly heartbreaking show I saw Off-Broadway at the Public Theater a couple of years ago. And it is now one of those rare Off-Broadway musicals that actually improves when it transfers to Broadway."
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“Why make Fun Home into a musical if you are going to strip away what makes it Fun Home? There is some literary name-dropping, but nothing on the intertextual level of Ms. Bechdel’s comic, and obviously the unique graphic element is lost on stage. What was a text about much more than just being gay, is here simply a coming out narrative. There’s nothing wrong with that, but what I know to be a funny, moving, and endlessly smart story is reflected back at me as fairly average Broadway fare.”
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"'Fun Home' compellingly conveys for an entire generation of gay men and women what being 'different' and what coming out was like...What emerges uniquely is a portrait of three individuals trapped in a time when there were no guidelines or role models for the personal crisis each of them faced individually...The cast is uniformly effective...'Fun Home' is a heartfelt, moving memoir of self-discovery."
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"There would have been a time when Alison Bechdel’s frank graphic-memoir would have never been considered for musicalization. But in these more enlightened times for both society and musical theater, Tesori and bookwriter-lyricist Lisa Kron were able to tackle the subject – and succeed mightily...Among the newcomers are Gabriella Pizzolo, Cole Grey and Zell Steele Morrow as the Bechdel tots...They’re delightful and hilarious in the show’s title song."
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"It’s a beautiful tangle of a story expertly staged by director Sam Gold. This theater is in the round, and it’s one of the smallest houses on Broadway so the show feels incredibly and appropriately intimate...I could go on and on about this show — how important it is for audiences to see, how it’s making commercial Broadway more relevant — but I think you get the point. 'Fun Home' is a special, special show."
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""The book is tightly structured with well-defined characters mined from the graphic novel...The music is the best new score on Broadway...Director Sam Gold has put together a polished production that is passionate, energized and sensitively mines the emotional depths of the musical."
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"The set is beautiful and allows for these seamless transitions that allow this theme of memory and this swirling vortex of Alison's life. The show is beautiful, you should really see it."
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"I fell hard for 'Fun Home' when I first saw it, and had worried that this rare beauty might be damaged in its relocation. But this production has only improved, not least because of its having to be reimagined for a theater-in-the-round space. The audience becomes part of the Bechdel family circle. For better or worse — we’re home."
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'Fun Home' is a thing of rare beauty: a Broadway musical of enormous intelligence and sensitivity. The libretto grabs you with humor, irony and poignant detail; the music moves with great skill from tuneful pastiche to striking dramatic force...'Fun Home' is not your ordinary Broadway musical, because it is extraordinary."
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"'Fun Home' is still basically what it was when I reviewed it before: the story of a lesbian cartoonist trying to understand her father, who killed himself shortly after revealing to her that he, too, was gay. Back then I called it 'hilarious and crushing,' and it remains so now. Maybe less hilarious and more crushing."
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"Composer Jeanine Tesori and writer-lyricist Lisa Kron have done something extraordinary here, reshaping cartoonist Alison Bechdel's graphic memoir into an unconventional memory play that seamlessly integrates music and drama...I found it a beguiling experience, almost unbearably poignant at times...For anyone who cares about adventurous musical theater, it's not to be missed."
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"A little bit of nuance inevitably gets lost when subject matter this dark is set to song; death and deep family schisms, after all, aren’t always fit for jazz hands. But like the book, 'Fun Home' manages to use an oft-unserious medium to deliver something seriously, singularly moving."
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"New! Fresh! Original!...Lisa Kron assembles words and images in unexpected ways to dramatize the bittersweet memoir...Sam Gold’s direction brings lucidity to the complex mechanics of staging a story that takes place in three time frames. And Jeanine Tesori’s haunting music doesn’t sound a bit like anyone else’s. "
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"'Fun Home', the thoroughly engrossing, poignant show is neither depressing nor prurient. Quite the opposite: The staging by director Sam Gold remains so sensitively compelling that an awkward cast change and an even more awkward space have barely diminished the power of the show...'Fun Home' is a marvelous achievement, full of humor as well as rue. Its 100 transporting minutes fly by and then it’s gone — not to be forgotten."
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"'Fun Home,' the gorgeously wrought and emotionally overwhelming new musical, is not so much interested in what happens to a loving but riven family, but why it happens, and, yet more important, what you do, as an old child, about the pain of your parents. It's a 100-minute piece that never lets you out of its embrace for a moment."
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"'Fun Home' has its weaknesses. The in-the-round staging often leaves you staring at an actor’s back. And as appealing as the Alisons are — all three actresses are perfect — the torment of the unhappy parents makes them more interesting characters...Still, 'Fun Home' is an important show. That it managed to make it to Broadway at all is a reason to rejoice."
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"'Fun Home' still moves you to your foundations...It’s unconventional grist, but the material is handled with such expertise that it speaks universally about life, love, family, surviving... Be prepared to wipe away tears."
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"To say that 'Fun Home' is the best new musical of this season would be an understatement. 'Fun Home' is a thoroughly dynamic piece that is just as emotionally piercing, good-humored and enjoyable as it is sharp, focused and culturally conscious. It belongs on the list of the smartest, most innovative musicals written in the past decade."
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"There's always a hint of worry when an off-Broadway show transfers to Broadway. Will it lose the magic? Does it have what it takes to survive? In the case of 'Fun Home,' the answers are: 'heck no' and 'yes!' In fact, the thrilling nature of this groundbreaking look at adolescence has increased with its move...'Fun Home' is absolutely mind-blowing."
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"Despite all that’s excellent about 'Fun Home,' it stops significantly short of being an excellent musical...Kron and Tesori have accomplished enough to make this one of the season’s few must-sees if you’ve never seen it before. But if 'Fun Home' shows how the illusion of mundanity can become vibrant uniqueness when allowed to flourish as it most desires, that’s a transformation we’re allowed to experience only from a distance."
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"Both Alison and her father sing, in heartfelt tones: 'I want to know what’s true/ Dig deep into who/ And what and why and when.' The Broadway 'Fun Home' still leaves a lot of those interrogatives unanswered, yet it’s remarkably gratifying, often heartrending, and fiercely humane."
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"'Fun Home' is the best Broadway musical in years. 'Fun Home' is an emotional roller-coaster ride, a grippingly heartwarming story mixed with some of the most smart and joyful musical numbers on Broadway...To those who think that 'Fun Home' doesn't sound like their sort of entertainment: this is musical theatre at its best, so go anyway. You're likely to be surprised, and thrilled, and enthralled."
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"The best new play on Broadway at the moment is Lisa Kron’s book for the musical 'Fun Home.' The mix of book and music cannot be faulted, and it’s not just the songs that linger. Composer Tesori’s use of recitative is sparing and her underscoring for some of Kron’s dialogue is every bit as exquisite as the big arias."
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"Could a musical focusing on a lesbian cartoonist whose closeted father kills himself fly on Broadway? From the start, this adaptation of a graphic novel had all the earmarks of a contemporary hit: topical subject matter, a wittily irreverent but emotionally compelling book and score, and characters who are at once intriguingly idiosyncratic and instantly accessible. On Broadway, the show feels even more powerful, and more unsettling."
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"Into a Broadway season dominated by movie retreads comes 'Fun Home,' the grown-up, disturbing, blazingly original heartbreaker. The musical play has lost a bit of close-up intimacy but none of its gripping enchantment in the transfer...This treasure retains the unpretentious feel of director Sam Gold's masterly production."
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"The author’s coming-of-age story comes vividly to life in a new musical — one of the most stirring and inventive on Broadway in years...Dynamically staged in the round, the production has the nostalgic palette of a ‘70s photo — as though we are watching Alison thumb through a family album. By the end, you may feel you know the family as well as if the album belonged to you — their story may be a far cry from yours, but its extraordinary telling touches on emotional truths that will hit home for everyone."
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"Saying 'Fun Home' is a musical about a family is like saying 'Hamlet' is a play about a prince. The brilliant show suggests that families are very complicated assemblages...It's very rare to see a musical with the emotional power of a fine play, but 'Fun Home' — touching, amusing, penetrating and honest — pulls it off."
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"'Fun Home' has only gotten richer...'Fun Home' is a masterful achievement—a tragic musical about learning to see one’s parents as flawed human beings, and a story as raw and real as any on stage."
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"Despite finding plenty to praise in 'Fun Home', I am afraid I am going to have to call Emperor’s New Clothes on this one. It is challenging to see what the fuss is about...While I found this more of a production to admire than enjoy, keen aficionados of edgy music theatre will most likely appreciate 'Fun Home.'
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"This is a brilliant musical production about self-discovery, elation, anguish, and defeat. It is easily one of the best shows on Broadway right now...This musical is innovative yet universal in its subject matter...This is a gem of a show that needs to be seen and heard."
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"It was an amazing show. Absolutely fantastic in every way...As a musical adaptation of a graphic novel, it was enormously successful...The scenes of identity and sexual awakening resonate like crazy for me…and based on the reactions of the audience, for many...I have only one thing left to say. If you can see this play, go see this play."
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"At moments during “Fun Home,” the beautiful heartbreaker of a musical, you may feel you’ve developed quadruple vision, and not just because your eyes are misted with tears. It’s also a matter of those three actresses playing the same character at different ages, a device that usually feels strained in theater, but here comes off as naturally as breathing."
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"As gay men increasingly claim pride of place in musical theater, gay women remain largely invisible there. Among the many meritorious things about the graceful Fun Home, adapted from Alison Bechdel’s illustrated memoir, is the way that Lisa Kron’s direct, poignant libretto and Jeanine Tesori’s expressive, multifarious music make lesbian identity legible onstage...a groundbreaking show."
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"Musical-theater training programs fetishize the “I Want” song — the number that comes soon after the opening of many shows and lays out the protagonist’s predicament. It says everything about the intelligence behind the new musical Fun Home that its authors have taken a good look at such musical storytelling traditions and mostly chucked them. Or more interestingly, reinvented them."
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"The score is rich and troubled and psychologically nuanced...Sondheim has always realized the devastating power of inertia, and 'Fun Home' does, too...Tesori and Kron have adopted Sondheim’s method without being derivative—their songs are character-driven gems."
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"How refreshing — a queer coming-of-age play in which the hero(ine) is not a diva, the parents are not monsters, and people are never mean, even when they’re being cruel. Lisa Kron’s warm, funny, heartbreaking book (from the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel) accomplishes all this without being sentimental. That welcome tone of sincerity is replicated in her lyrics to Jeanine Tesori’s introspective songs, which sound like a human voice being painfully honest with itself."
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'There have been plenty of new American musicals better put together than "Fun Home," but I can't think of one in recent years that has touched me as much with its tender, ironic and courageous vulnerability."
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"Composer Jeanine Tesori and book writer/lyricist Lisa Kron tackle the material with great sensitivity and warmth. Their adaptation boasts a solid chamber-pop score, a handful of wonderful scenes and a winning cast.“Fun Home” has a lot going for it, thanks to the great affection and humor it accords its flawed, searching characters. Still, it’s ironic that a show about frustrated longings may leave you feeling the same."
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"The show is unconventional in its subject matter and uncompromising in its intelligence and emotionality. Songs are revealing and personal — whether it’s a break-your-heart ballad (there are a few) or fantasy numbers to lift the mood...Be glad you didn’t live there. But this “Fun Home” is an unforgettable place to visit."
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"Kron and Tesori have found an effective device to tell this sometimes funny but often painful coming of age story...Familiarity with the source is not needed to follow this musical version of the author-artist's journey to understanding herself and her father. It's not a journey geared to mass-market audiences, but one open-minded, adventurous musical theater lovers will not want to miss. "
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"Astonishing...That is what good writing is all about. We want adventure and a degree of safety all tied up in a bow. This production does that and more. This production soars and will be one of those iconic theatre events that will fall under the enviable rubric of “Did you see THAT production??? Hurry, hurry, hurry on over.”
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"This story about a young woman coming to terms with her father’s probable suicide is suffused with death, not as a source of despair but of inspiration. The 2006 book exploded the possibilities of the graphic format. The musical by composer Jeanine Tesori and writer Lisa Kron -- with an enormous assist from Sam Gold’s inventive, sensitive staging -- lifts the story to a spectral plane without ever losing it's grounding."
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"Extraordinary, disturbing and delightful...Based on Alison Bechdel's 2006 best-selling graphic memoir, this 100-minute treasure of invention captures the certainty and ambiguity of growing up in an amusing yet mysterious small-town Pennsylvania family."
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"The rich adaptation moves forward at a whirling pace...Tesori’s intricate melodies take hold from the opening. Kron’s book and lyrics hit the right notes of sensitivity and sarcasm...This is a father-daughter story, one that we know from its first moments will be tragicomic. “Fun Home” is a clear and pointed reminder that you’re not truly an adult until you’ve understood your parents as flawed human beings."
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"A fresh musical that seems like an impossible sell on Broadway but hooks you instantly with its honesty and beauty. It is an adaptation from a graphic novel about growing up in a funeral home with a closeted gay dad. It should be theatrical suicide, and yet few shows are as moving, relatable and funny...Make sure 'Fun Home' is on your list."
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"Every once in a while, a musical comes along that restores my faith in the art form. 'Fun Home', is one of those musicals...if you haven't already seen 'Fun Home', you should. And if you have seen 'Fun Home,' you should go again...Lisa Kron and composer Jeanine Tesori have found just the right balance of humor and pathos to bring vivid life to Alison Bechdel's intensely moving graphic novel...The production is directed with both subtlety and bite by Sam Gold, and features an outstanding cast."
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"While I’m a fan of musicals, this one, while at times a delight, has a difficult time living up to its source material...the graphic novel form allows for freedom from pesky constraints like linear time and geographical space; the theater, however, is less forgiving...Fun Home is not all longing and sadness; there are also moments of pure joy, and the musical shines during these...But aside from these few bright spots, it’s not clear that a musical is the best second format for the material."
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"Overall,'Fun Home' is an unbelievable moving theatrical experience. It was one of the few times I’ve left a theatre lately feeling that I had been taken on a journey. I was never bored or distracted. Lesbian journeys are so rarely portrayed on the main stage. We are often relegated to the sidelines, indie festivals, and one-woman shows. 'Fun Home' takes Alison’s and our experience and gives it not only the validity that it deserves, but also a soundtrack to fill our hearts to the brim."
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