Recently, I paid a visit to Grand Central Terminal for the first time ever since moving to New York City from China 12 years ago. Before this visit I had always thought, “Big deal, it’s just a train station,” but I was very wrong. Grand Central is not “just” a train station, it is so much more. It is at the center of one of the grandest cities of the world; it is not simply a place, but an experience.

That morning, I bought myself a cuppa and a bagel and just people-watched for a good half hour, all the while soaking in the energy and buzz of hundreds of people moving and hurrying about. Being in the center of all this activity made me feel alone in a city of more than 8 million people. It was a truly inspiring and relaxing experience that made me fall in love with the city even more. Then, as I was just about to leave, I noticed a series of art works in light boxes all along some of the walls of the dining concourse. At closer inspection, I saw that these were papercuts placed on top of light boxes. After a quick Google search, it turned out that these artworks were part of a celebratory exhibition, called “On Paper,” to honor the centennial of the Grand Central Terminal. The exhibition features papercut works by artists Rob Ryan, Xin Song, Laura Cooperman, and Thomas Witte.

In particular, one of the works by Rob Ryan caught my eye. Entitled, “There Is Only Time,” the paper cut featured block-letter quotes as well as heartwarming scenes surrounding the central idea of time. When placed alongside each other, the papercuts read “There Is Only Time!” The four detailed panels came together to bring out the message that time is just time. It helps us to remember that we need to relax and stop thinking of time as “wrong time” or “right time,” “work time” or “play time.” We should just let go and relax so that we can stop being pressured and stressed out over such a simple thing as “time.” One of Ryan’s chief purposes of placing this art in the Grand Central Terminal was to remind people to take pleasure in life and its various moments, especially in a place where people are always mindlessly rushing about. He wanted his audience to connect with his work and realize that everything was going to be okay. Ryan’s quirky papercut artwork gave me a happy feeling when I look at the lovely and warm scenes that he depicts in the panels. One of the first thoughts that came into my mind was that I should “stop and smell the roses” more often to enjoy the beauty of life.

Looking at this piece of lovely and intricate piece of art soothed my mind and made me think about time as something that is not as intense or dramatic as we always make it out to be. It’s moments like these, when you are not rushing or worrying about losing time, that you make the most out of each moment that you have.

—Joanna Huang

Before the show started I really didn’t know what to expect from the musical production of Fun Home. I was really curious to see how the playwrights interpreted the meaning and essence of the graphic novel memoir. As it turns out, the play was more entertaining and enjoyable than the graphic novel. In the production, I felt that the turning points in Alison’s life were more poignant and emphasized through song. That kind of emphasis was not as great in the graphic novel, where these moments passed quickly.

I remember when I was watching the play, there were a discrepancies between the musical and the novel, such as the scene in New York City where Bruce snuck out in the middle of the night while the children were all asleep. In the novel, this moment did not seem to me to be as significant as the play made it out to be. The production added some more elements to that particular scene to make Bruce seem more fatherly and less distant, putting Alison to bed before he left. Another instance was when Alison had sex for the first time with Joan. In the novel, that moment wasn’t as extravagantly highlighted as in the play, where Alison dedicated a whole number to her newfound love and attraction for Joan. It just seemed like some moments were specifically emphasized in the musical for the entertainment value, which made the story lose some of its intensity and drama.

The musical was thoroughly enjoyable, if not a little too upbeat to match the same mood set in the graphic novel. Everything was one step more happy and energetic than what I felt while reading the novel. I don’t know if this is a good or a bad thing, but I guess the story does need to be adjusted to match the entertainment needs of the audience. I, for one, certainly laughed more during the course of the play than I did the whole time I was reading the graphic novel (I didn’t even laugh once). One thing that bothered me was that there was no mention at all of Alison’s struggles with her developing OCD during her childhood years or her lying in her diary entries. Maybe all of this was excluded from the final cut of the play because it was not essential to the central theme focusing on Bruce and Alison’s relationship? Even so, I thought that it should have at least been mentioned somewhere since it was an important part of the author’s transformative years.

Although a lot of the nuances and allusions to other great literary works were missed in the transformation from graphic novel to musical, the story didn’t lose its most integral theme surrounding the issues of closeted homosexuality and father-daughter relationships. The musical managed to put the “fun” in Fun Home by making every moment marvelous either through the visual settings or the catchy and clever song lyrics.

It really was an emotional and unforgettable play, and I would absolutely recommend everyone to see it!

The first thing I have to say is that my favorite line was definitely about the delivery woman’s key ring. I noticed that in the picture in the novel, and I was really excited that they made a point of it.
Having said that I think there were two really interesting things about the production. One was the” author” character watching the events of her life. That included the way that the “author” kept looking over the shoulder of her younger selves and reading what they wrote in her diary. Often she read it with a different tone than it had been intended. This fits well with what we discussed in class about the reliability of a person looking back at their own memories. It also included the way she saw things and then tried to dissect what the people in the scenes, including herself, were thinking. She had the sense of a person trying to put the pieces of her life back together, not sure as to where she was going or she had come from. The novel didn’t have that same tone of self-discovery.
I would say the other thing that struck was the way the one blue door was used to represent choices that Alison had to make, as well as the major events that had a tremendous impact on her. For example, the door to her room were she had all those important conversations with Joan, or the door to the Gay Union room, that represented the choice she had to make about herself. Part of the re-use of the door was probably practically, but I think there was definitely a greater meaning, because I got a similar vibe from the novel.
I also felt the father was much more menacing in the novel.

Hello classmates and professors alike, this is my review of FUN HOME (it’s supposed to be capitalized, right? Everyone’s capitalizing it…)

Everyone seems to have enjoyed the performance as if it were the greatest thing they’d ever come across, but as we know, nothing is perfect, so I’ll be “that guy” who points out the elephant in the room.

1. First of all, the book was much more intense. I understand it’s difficult to make a musical into something that’s intense without adding a bit of humor or amusement, but then what’s the point of making the musical in the first place? Alison Bechdel’s message is not that her life was about breaking into song whenever things got tense; in fact, it’s probably quite the opposite. Perhaps the point of the performance was to emphasize that throughout all the confusion in her life, Bechdel managed to find happiness and beauty in “negative spaces”, but at times there was simply too much “happiness” which seemed a bit unneeded.

2. I was really perplexed as to why the youngest actress who played Alison (the one who sings “I want to play airplane”) seemed like both the childhood version and the preteen version.  Allow me to explain: the youngest version of Alison seems way too childish, even though her persona is a perfect balance between awkwardness and innocence. In the beginning of the performance, it’s obvious that she’s a total kid; however, as the plot develops, she quite clearly molds into a 13 year old who notices the oddities that surround her. I wish they had either included a fourth character or focused less on Alison’s childhood personality.

3. Also, I wish they’d given the college version of Alison more stage time. This is the critical character in the entire performance – while she’s in college, Alison discovers more about herself than ever before, and I felt like they breezed through her lines, ultimately hampering the significance that she is supposed to exemplify.

Don’t get me wrong, overall the musical was very entertaining, especially the trio of kids performing the “Bechdel Funeral Home” song (honestly my favorite part). But I chose to talk about the weaknesses and not go with the class drift.