Interview: Kate Shindle Says FUN HOME is Unlike Anything You Have Experienced at the Fisher Theatre!

Fun Home, the groundbreaking and Tony Award-winning Best Musical, arrives November 29th at the Fisher Theatre. "Most people have never seen anything like Fun Home, especially in the realm of musical theatre, because the telling of this story is exquisite," said Kate Shindle. "If you like good theatre, you should come see our show while we're in Detroit. There are going to be many other productions of more traditional musicals, but I think this is chances to see a really first-class production of something will challenge, excite, and hopefully move you."

Fun Home is based on Alison Bechdel's best-selling graphic memoir that explores her childhood growing up in the 1970s with her rather eccentric family. The audience is introduced to Alison at three ages in her life. Shindle, Broadway and regional theatre veteran along with the current president of the Actors' Equity Association, plays Alison as an adult telling the story. "Fun Home to me is primarily about identity, discovering who you are, connecting with who you are, and the feeling of being able to live truthfully, which my character is able to do, but her father is not necessarily. In fact, it could be argued that her father not being able to acknowledge who he was as a closeted gay man in a small town and actually suffered greatly as a result of that," she said. "It's a story about a family, about the relationships they have, about a woman looking back on her life, and her relationship with her father primarily because she is trying to create art based on it.

The show is groundbreaking for two reasons: it is the first Broadway show to have a lesbian leading character. Second, it made history as the first show written exclusively by women to ever win Best Musical. Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori also became the first female writing team to win Best Score. The show is considered to be relatable to everyone because everyone has a family and we all learn things about our parents or our children as we grow up that reshape the way we remember our childhoods. "This is a great story we are trying to tell. Our job on stage is to tell the story of this very specific family and the very specific issues they face, which also has universal themes, but it's interesting because people see themselves in this story in different way," said Shindle. "To me, it's exciting to be on the road right now with this show because I feel like we get to be ambassadors for acceptance and respect. No matter what your politics, I feel acceptance, respect, and treating people with dignity and care is a message that we can all unite around."

The show is not recommended for all ages, but Shindle, after performing in the national tour of Cabaret and being an AIDS activist for many years, has her own opinion that she hopes parents will consider. "I think often the phrase 'adult themed' can get a little muddied. Cabaret was lot racier than Fun Home. We have kids in our show; really great, talented, normal, non-show kids. If parents are thinking about whether or not to bring a kid to this show, I think the most that could happen is that those kids would want to have a conversation afterwards about what they just saw and why. I feel that anything that provokes conversation between parents and their own children about some of the more complex issues that arise is a really positive thing," she explained. "I was an AIDS activist for a long time. One of the things that I learned from that is we can try to legislative all we want for what gets taught in schools, but there is no substitute for parents having sometimes challenging but really substantive conversations with their own kids. When people say 'oh, this show has adult themes' that just means intellectually, I believe, and emotionally they're more challenging, not by any stretch a piece of racy theatre."

"I think it is a show for people who like musicals. I think it is a show for people who like plays because the play itself is very important. The words are very important, not just the songs," said Shindle. "I think it is also a show for people who aren't sure they like musicals because they have a vision of musicals as sort of big, flashy over the top extravaganza. This is not that. It has a much more contemporary sound to it, but it also has some throwback numbers like what Alison would have listened to in childhood like a Jackson 5 song for example. It's just good theatre. People who like good theatre should come see Fun Home. That's like the most generic tagline ever, but it's true."

Fun Home opens November 29th and runs through December 11th at the Fisher Theatre in Detroit. Not recommended for children under 13. For more information or tickets, visit www.BroadwayInDetroit.com.