FUN HOME- previews- Page 5

[jv92]

Posted: 10/12/13 at 7:12pm

I've often respected Tesori's work more than I've really LOVED it-- even CAROLINE, OR CHANGE, which really is quite exquisite despite my minor misgivings. But I sort of REALLY LOVED this piece. I say "sort of" because I have like...two?...minor quibbles. But other than that, this is a bold, imaginative and affecting musical. Much credit must go to Lisa Kron who proves herself an adept lyricist and a marvelous book-writer. The "disjointed-ness" non-linearity (although not disjointed in the sense that it made no sense) worked for me and kept me constantly surprised and alert. All of the performances are terrific. The staging is marvelous and uses the turntable very effectively.

And I totally 100% agree that "Changing My Major to Joan" is a dazzling song. The mother's "Days" song was also quite profound. The car ride/"Say Something" number was also brilliant and utterly moving. I suppose my BIGGEST misgiving was the charming, but utterly wrong (for me) commercial number. It was cute and funny and those kids are delightful. But I didn't get it. It didn't feel organic. Maybe I'm missing something? However, I thought the full company 70s sendup before Bruce takes the kids to New York was MUCH MORE effective and right for the piece.

My more MINOR misgiving was that I felt the show had too many endings. And maybe if I see it again (which I might...I really hope to) I'll feel differently, but the father's big final song, while gloriously performed and well written, felt...I don't know. I think the ending could be simplified. Certainly not emotionally, and I don't mean clear-cut. But something about the end didn't quite gel for me.

But I thought it was wonderful, and I don't know if, of the leading players, I can pick out a standout performance. Each lady playing Alison was great. Kuhn and Cerveris, as always, were marvelous. Highly recommended!

[Kad]

Posted: 10/12/13 at 7:47pm

Wow! I'm surprised they cut that line, too, Scary. It was a line that, though very brief, said a lot about Bruce and his relationship with Allison.

[darquegk]

Posted: 10/12/13 at 7:56pm

Yeah. That line is of huge importance in the story, as it is one of the major clues in the mystery of whether or not Bruce knew his daughter was gay, and whether or not this played a part in his death.

After listening to the music again (*cough*), I really do think this score is Tesori's best since Caroline, and it has made me appreciate Shrek more, in a way. The bridge between the slightly folksy and the powerfully theatrical that a few songs in Shrek, particularly the ballads, touched on has been developed beautifully here. Honestly, I would like to see Brian D'Arcy James as Bruce if this transfers and the role is recast.

[jv92]

Posted: 10/12/13 at 8:13pm

I cannot for the life of me see Brian D'Arcy James as Bruce. The role has Cerveris written all over it.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 10/12/13 at 8:41pm

jv92, I see what you are saying about the Fun Home "commercial" number...it certainly is a bit jarring in the context of the piece. But I think I liked it, besides it just being a very cute/catchy song, because I felt like the pastiche made sense as the kind of music the kids would have heard at that time. Since the premise is them playing at imitating media, I liked that. Very Jackson 5, of course. And just the dissonance of that peppiness with what they are actually singing about is interesting. That innocence/ignorance makes the scene immediately after (in which Bruce asks Alison into the room with the corpse) all the more chilling.

I think it shows how normal these utterly strange circumstances were to the kids, an idea underlined in the production when the House set is made literal in the second act. As though coming home from living away for the first time, Alison was able to see her childhood as it really was.

But I agree that the second big, bouncy pastiche song (I thought it MUST have been a real period song from TV the first time I heard it!) flows better dramatically with its build-up. Really haunting in a way. Updated On: 10/12/13 at 08:41 PM

[darquegk]

Posted: 10/12/13 at 9:03pm

The Fun Home Commercial song is linked to a scene in the book in which the kids play in the funeral home and imagine it is an airline, with Alison as the masculine hijacker and her brother as the stereotypical "sexy stewardess," doing a coffee-tea-or-me routine, utterly nonplussed by the death around them.

The point is the same- the kids are more or less unaware that the atmosphere they are growing up in is alien and unsettling to adults. I rather wish they had included the sequence in which Alison realizes that she was Wednesday Addams, growing up in the real Addams Family.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 10/12/13 at 9:13pm

I kind of missed that Wednesday Addams bit as well.

Check your PMs :)

[jv92]

Posted: 10/12/13 at 10:12pm

I don't know if I read it here or on ATC, but someone mentioned how they didn't think once about their outside life and what was going on beyond the walls of the Newman watching FUN HOUSE. I absolutely had the same experience. It was totally engrossing, and I felt like I went on "a journey" with the characters. I think not having an intermission helped that, but I think the last new musical I saw where I didn't think about anything but the piece for its entirety was NEXT TO NORMAL. (Not to knock some of the other fine new musicals I've seen since that.) And before that GREY GARDENS. And both of those shows had an intermission so there was time to think about the line for the bathroom and how insane the cost of a water bottle is at the concession stand is. FUN HOME, smartly and advantageously, avoid thats.

[ahhrealmonsters]

Posted: 10/12/13 at 10:16pm

I don't know Violet, but I've seen Caroline, Or Change and Shrek, and I've always been impressed with Jeanine Tesori's work. (I'm one of the few who really liked Shrek.) Lisa Kron does a great job balancing the three Alisons (among other things she does right with this show), and I always love a female writing team. Any idea if there are plans for a cast recording? I'd love to be able to hear these songs again and again. I really hope this show gets a recording and recorded for TOFT at Lincoln Center. There's so much life in this show. I hope people remember it.

[jv92]

Posted: 10/12/13 at 10:17pm

I would THINK that a cast recording must be in the works, but stranger things have happened. I certainly hope so, though. It's a top-notch score.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 10/13/13 at 9:51am

I'm not nearly as enthusiastic about this show as most folks. I liked it. But it needs a lot of work. Self-conscious poignancy on its sleeve sometimes gives way to real emotional vibrancy. The freshness that occasionally breaks through comes from resonant material that is new and ripe: the intergenerational conflict between a gay parent and child, the parent adapted for conformity, the child facing a new world of acceptance. This is strong, resonant stuff and when the show hits those marks, it sometimes reaches something we have very little of in musical dramas these days, greatness. But too often it loses track and gets bogged down in hackneyed psychology and uber dramatics with comic irony re: family dysfunction which would have seemed old-fashioned 25 years ago.

Best of all are the three Alisons. Worst of all is the underwritten role of the mother.

The score has some very fine moments - the car scene, the song about the butch woman with the keys are terrific moments with real emotional life - and others which are not nearly in their league, some of which are obvious attempts at pleasing the audience:
I'm in the minority here, obviously, but, as just one example of the latter, the cutesy number with the coffins was embarrassing.

Updated On: 10/13/13 at 09:51 AM

[indytallguy]

Posted: 10/13/13 at 10:29am

"The freshness that occasionally breaks through comes from resonant material that is new and ripe ... "

Having seen the show last night, I agree with this observation. The show in its current form has some really wonderful moments, and I loved much of the music. The staging is done very effectively and the sets/turntable works well.

But it feels like the show is still trying to get complete clarity around the story being told and how to translate that into the musical form. I found myself wanting to know more about some of the characters and what led certain moments to occur. Upon reviewing this thread, it appears that some of what I was seeking actually appears in the graphic novel, but has not been carried over to the stage.

I hope the preview period helps them find ways to build on all that is so very good, edit away the less effective edges, and most importantly, add the narrative threads that would make this an even more emotionally satisfying production.

[TBone]

Posted: 10/13/13 at 10:44am

I'm very much looking forward to seeing this this afternoon!

[macnyc]

Posted: 10/13/13 at 11:16am

^^^ Me too!

Darquegk, how did you listen to the score again?

[jbm2]

Posted: 10/13/13 at 2:31pm

Does the show have many comic elements?

[ClydeBarrow]

Posted: 10/13/13 at 2:55pm

Do you mean comedic? Yes. It's not like you sit there depressed for 105 mins.

Updated On: 10/13/13 at 02:55 PM

[jbm2]

Posted: 10/13/13 at 2:59pm

Ok
Is the show funny?

[ClydeBarrow]

Posted: 10/13/13 at 3:02pm

Please just see BAD JEWS at this point. That's what I wish on you.

[jv92]

Posted: 10/13/13 at 4:29pm

No, it's not funny at all jbm2. I laughed more at PASSION. Stay far away and go see KINKY BOOTS instead

[Kad]

Posted: 10/13/13 at 4:35pm

It's also very graphic.

[macnyc]

Posted: 10/13/13 at 5:31pm

I saw the show again today and decided to try to write down the songs. The titles are just approximations, obviously! Plus, I was writing in the dark.

"Linen" sung by Bruce and Alison

"I Wanna Play Airplane" sung by Small Alison

"He Wants/Welcome to Our House on Maple Avenue" initially sung by Helen, then the three children join in. This is performed while getting the house ready for the visit by the historical society woman.

"Come to the Fun Home (Fun Home Commercial)" sung by the three children; has a vintage Jackson 5 sound and look

"Me and Him" sung by Bruce and Roy

"Al for Short" sung by Small Alison (my notes say: "I don't know what it is about you, but you make me feel so safe." I think I have matched up the title and the lyrics correctly, but if not, let me know)

"Changing My Major to Joan" sung by Medium Alison

"Map Song" sung by Alison

"Everything's All Right When We're Together" sung by entire cast. (This is the Cowsills-like number). Lyrics include: You are like a raincoat/made out of love

"Ring of Keys" sung by Small Alison (in the diner with her father). Lyrics include: Your swagger/and your bearing/ and the just-right clothes you're wearing

"Days and Days and Days" sung by Helen (sitting at table with Medium Alison)

"Heart and Soul" (with new lyrics about literary figures) sung by Bruce and Medium Alison at the piano

"Say Something/Norris Jones" sung by Alison and Bruce (sitting in car)

Bruce's song about the house (sorry, wrote one line on top of the other and can't make out my notes!)

Reprise: "I Want to Be an Airplane" sung by all three Alisons

If anyone can help fill in the blanks, that would be great.

Edited to add: Thanks to Ahhrealmonsters for "Al for Short" information!






















Updated On: 10/14/13 at 05:31 PM

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 10/13/13 at 7:26pm

"Changing my Major to Joan" is a wonderful song and quite funny. I can actually see it becoming quite well known.

[ZiggyCringe]

Posted: 10/13/13 at 9:43pm

Absolutely stunning. Tesori's work is wonderfully melodic, and Kron's lyrics are masterful. I was so moved. You know how you feel where there is a "Dreamgirls" moment like And I'm Telling You? This show has FOUR of those songs. It is whackadoo terrific.

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 10/13/13 at 9:58pm

There is indeed a cast recording already in the works.

[macnyc]

Posted: 10/13/13 at 10:49pm

^^^ That's great news!