Le monde des musicals

After her father dies unexpectedly, Alison dives deep into her past to tell the story of the volatile, brilliant, one-of-a-kind man whose temperament and secrets defined her family and her life. Moving between past and present, Alison relives her unique childhood playing at the family’s Bechdel Funeral Home, her growing understanding of her own sexuality, and the looming, unanswerable questions about her father’s hidden desires.

As she works on her memoir in the present day, successful middle-aged cartoonist Alison Bechdel recalls two time periods in her life. The first is her childhood, around age 10 (Small Alison), when she struggles against her father Bruce's obsessive demands and begins to identify her inchoate sexuality. The second is her first year in college (Medium Alison), when she begins her first relationship and comes out of the closet as a lesbian.

Alison remembers herself, as a child, demanding that her father play "airplane" with her, while Bruce sorts through a box of junk and valuables he has salvaged from a barn ("It All Comes Back"). Bruce tells the family that a visitor from the local historical society is coming to see their ornate Victorian home that he has restored, and his wife Helen prepares the house to Bruce's demanding aesthetic standard ("Welcome to Our House on Maple Avenue"). In a phone call with her father and a journal entry, Medium Alison expresses her anxiety about starting college ("Not Too Bad"). At the Bechdel Funeral Home, Small Alison and her brothers John and Christian hide in caskets while Bruce talks to Pete, a mourning young man. The children perform an imaginary advertisement for the funeral home ("Come to the Fun Home"). Medium Alison hesitates outside the door of the college's Gay Union, and is flummoxed when she meets Joan, a confident young lesbian. Bruce invites into the house Roy, a young man whom he has hired to do yard work. Bruce begins to seduce Roy in the library while Helen is playing the piano upstairs, trying her best to ignore it ("Helen's Etude").

Medium Alison writes a letter to her parents but does not mention Joan or the Gay Union. Bruce orders Small Alison to put on a dress, but she would rather wear a jean jacket. Bruce tells her that she would be the only girl without a dress and that the other children would laugh at her; she leaves on the dress ("Party Dress"). Medium Alison proudly tells Joan that she has written a letter to her parents telling them that she is a lesbian, but begins to second-guess herself (beginning to wonder if she's asexual) until Joan kisses her. That night, she is excited and joyful at having had sex with Joan ("Changing My Major").

Alison considers the connection between her coming out and her father's death. Small Alison has a homework assignment to draw a map of places her family has lived, but Bruce aggressively takes over, drawing it the way he thinks it should look. Alison realizes that despite having traveled and lived in Europe, her father's place of birth, life, work and death can all be placed in a small circle in Beech Creek, Pennsylvania ("Maps"). Bruce offers a ride and a beer to an underage boy, and it is later implied that they had sexual intercourse. Medium Alison writes to her parents, asking for a response to her coming-out letter. Small Alison watches The Partridge Family, but Bruce switches it off. Small Alison talks to him, and finds out that he is going to see a psychiatrist because he is "bad" and not good like her. Alison expresses annoyance that he lied to her; the actual reason he was going was because he was arrested for what he did to the underage boy. Helen tells Small Alison that the psychiatrist will help her father, and attempts to reassure her. Bruce starts a vicious argument with Helen and breaks several of her possessions along with some library books. Small Alison fantasizes about her family as the happy family singing together on television ("Raincoat of Love").

Alison remembers a time when Bruce took her and her brothers to New York City and stayed in a borrowed Greenwich Village apartment. After a long day, Small Alison, Christian and John settle into sleeping bags. Small Alison wakes up and catches Bruce sneaking out. Bruce sings a lullaby ("Pony Girl"). He reassures his daughter that he's just going out for a paper, but he leaves to go cruising. Medium Alison is angered by a noncommittal letter from Bruce, responding to her coming out. At a luncheonette with her father, Small Alison notices a butch delivery woman and feels an inexplicable kinship with her ("Ring of Keys").

Medium Alison calls home to demand a fuller response from her parents and is astonished when her mother tells her that her father has had sexual relationships with men and boys. Alison explores the tensions her family was under at this time and watches a heated argument between her parents. Medium Alison returns home for vacation with Joan in tow. Helen confesses to Medium Alison her devastation at spending her life in an unfulfilling marriage with Bruce ("Days and Days"). Medium Alison, Joan and Bruce have an unexpectedly pleasant evening around the piano. Bruce asks Alison if she'd like to go for a drive, and (adult) Alison realizes that Medium Alison is gone; she joins her father in the car, breaking the boundaries of time. On the drive, she and Bruce struggle to express themselves to each other ("Telephone Wire").

Bruce, manically engaged in a new restoration project, tries and fails to find a way to hold his life together. He steps in front of a truck and is killed ("Edges of the World"). Alison, newly reconciled to her past, remembers and draws a moment of perfect balance: playing "airplane" with her father, while reminiscing about the past with the other Alisons ("Flying Away").

The stage adaptation of Fun Home was developed over the course of five years. It was first workshopped as a musical at the Ojai Playwrights Conference in August 2009. A staged reading was performed at The Public Theater in 2011. (Of the cast of that staged reading, only Judy Kuhn and Beth Malone continued in their roles to the full Off-Broadway production.) The musical had another workshop as part of the Sundance Institute's Theater Lab in July 2012, featuring Raul Esparza. Following that it ran for three weeks as part of the Public Theater's Public Lab series in October and November 2012. On April 8, 2013, musical selections from the play were performed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, Judy Kuhn, David Hyde Pierce and others at an event for the Sundance Institute. A final Public Theater workshop was held in May 2013.

The musical's development process entailed extensive changes and rewrites. Beth Malone said that the original workshop script "doesn't resemble this current play at all." In early versions, the production was structured around Bechdel's drawings, but the creators later removed most of this element, save for one image of Bruce and young Alison which is used at the musical's conclusion. Revisions continued through the preview period of the Off-Broadway production, requiring the actors to perform new material every night.

Fun Home premiered Off-Broadway at The Public Theater on September 30, 2013, and opened officially on October 22, 2013. Originally scheduled to run through November 3, 2013, the run was extended multiple times and the musical closed on January 12, 2014. The Public Theater production was directed by Sam Gold. Sets and costumes were by David Zinn, lighting by Ben Stanton, projections by Jim Findlay and Jeff Sugg and choreography by Danny Mefford.

In response to a controversy in which the legislature of South Carolina attempted to financially punish the College of Charleston for choosing the original graphic novel of Fun Home as a reading selection for incoming freshmen, the off-Broadway cast presented a concert of music from the play to a full house in Charleston on April 21, 2014. Alison Bechdel, Lisa Kron, Jeanine Tesori and musical director Chris Fenwick were in attendance. A Charleston reviewer described the performance as "breathtaking" and the music as "astounding". Actor Michael Cerveris called the Charleston performances "the clearest proof I've ever experienced ... of theatre's enduring value to society and its exclusive capacity to bring people together".

The musical has been playing at Broadway's Circle in the Square Theatre, with previews from March 27, 2015, and an official opening on April 19, 2015. Sam Gold, who directed the Public Theater production, also directs the show on Broadway, leading the Off-Broadway production team (including Zinn, Mefford and Stanton). The Off-Broadway cast reprised their roles on Broadway, except for the actors playing Medium Alison, John and Christian Bechdel. In December 2015, eight months after opening on Broadway, the show recouped its capitalization and began to make a profit. Costs for the show were relatively low due to a small cast and orchestra.

The original producers have booked a year long national tour of the show starting in the fall of 2016. The first international production of Fun Home is planned to premiere in Manila, Philippines, in late 2016, with Lea Salonga as Helen.

1. "It All Comes Back (Opening)" – Small Alison, Bruce, Alison & Company
2. "Sometimes my father appeared to enjoy having children..." – Alison, Bruce & Helen
3. "Welcome to Our House on Maple Avenue" – Helen, Alison, Small Alison, Christian, John, Bruce & Roy
4. "Not Too Bad" – Medium Alison
5. "Just had a good talk with Dad..." – Alison, Medium Alison, Bruce, Pete, Small Alison, John & Christian
6. "Come to the Fun Home" – John, Christian & Small Alison
7. "Helen’s Etude" – Alison, Roy, Bruce, Small Alison, Helen, John, Christian & Medium Alison
8. "Thanks for the care package..." – Medium Alison, Joan, Small Alison & Bruce
9. "Party Dress" – Small Alison, Bruce, Medium Alison, Alison
10. "Changing My Major" – Medium Alison
11. "I leapt out of the closet..." – Alison, Small Alison, Bruce & Helen
12. "Maps" – Alison
13. "Read a book..." – Bruce, Small Alison, Alison & Helen
14. "Raincoat of Love" – Bobby Jeremy & Company
15. "Clueless in New York…" – Alison, Small Alison & Bruce
16. "Pony Girl" – Bruce
17. "A flair for the dramatic…" – Alison, Joan, Medium Alison & Bruce
18. "Ring of Keys" – Small Alison & Alison
19. "Let me introduce you to my gay dad..." – Joan, Medium Alison, Alison, Bruce & Small Alison
20. "Shortly after we were married..." – Helen & Medium Alison
21. "Days and Days" – Helen
22. "You ready to go for that drive?..." – Bruce & Alison
23. "Telephone Wire" – Alison & Bruce
24. "It was great to have you home..." – Bruce & Alison
25. "Edges of the World" – Bruce
26. "This is what I have of you..." – Alison
27. "Flying Away (Finale)" – Alison, Medium Alison & Small Alison

Aucun dossier informatif complémentaire concernant Fun home

Aucun dossier informatif complémentaire concernant Fun home