Having the chance to watch Fun Home the musical certainly made Wednesday night, a fun night. After reading Fun Home, the novel, I just could not think of a single way to change it into a musical. It seemed impossible. After all, it is a graphic novel, which means the total number of words is seemingly too few to create an entire show with. Even though it was at the public theater and sounded like a great show to watch, my expectations were low. I expected myself to be very against the whole thing. Although there were many aspects that irked me, I was, overall, impressed.

After skimming the playbill and noticing there were going to be three people playing Alison Bechdel at different ages, I knew the play was going to have an interesting concept. Then the play started and I saw the youngest and oldest Alison on stage at the same time. I finally understood how most of the play would work. The oldest one would be there (for the most part) to narrate the thoughts and observations. This concept works. I could better understand the emotions Alison might have felt when remembering these events and the emotions felt while actually experiencing the events. All the characters worked great together to show the flaws and weaknesses in the family. Several scenes were acted out as they were drawn in the novel, which was interesting to see. The best aspect is that the play is that the feelings of the characters could be felt. Anger was anger, such as when the parents argued about Bruce not following court orders. Alison’s confusion about her sexuality made me just as confused about her. The sadness in the play even made the audience cry. The play made sense, had emotion, and is a great replica of the novel.

Despite all this, it is not the perfect play. While the novel gives off a sad and depressing vibe that just makes a reader sad, the musical gave off a very happy feeling. I finished the book sad, but left the show laughing about the funny scenes. The musical also added more details to the storyline such as learning German that only added humor. Although it is funny, it just takes away from the sadness of the story. Also, the mixture of the three different aged Alison’s on stage showed chaos and was interesting, but it was confusing at times. Then there was also the fact some details were left out, changed, or out of order. Some seemingly important parts that were left out were the camping scenes and the part where the younger brother left by himself in New York. Perhaps it was because I read the novel beforehand that I feel that the musical has these problems. If I did not read it I wonder if I would feel something is missing while watching. Actually, I probably wouldn’t have understood it if I did not read the novel.

In the end, this was nothing but a great experience. The music was great, and the actors were fantastic. Even with the annoyances, I was thoroughly entertained and would recommend this play.

Did anyone else find these little details a little annoying as well?