Turns out you can’t judge a musical by its poster.
The only thing I knew about the Broadway show Fun Home before I saw it last night was a) the critics loved it and b) the Tony voters did, too.
It scored 12 nominations earlier this week.
I didn’t know the soundtrack or the book upon which it was based. I walked in the theatre about as clueless as a person could get.
So imagine my surprise when the show wasn’t the singing, dancing Partridge Family parody that I had cooked up in my head.
If you too are in the dark (and wish to remain so), stop reading now.
Have they left? Okay. So the rest of you know why my mind is a bit blown right now.
The musical’s narrator is a lesbian cartoonist. (Yeah, this show’s no Cinderella.) With the help of her very young self and college-aged self — two incredible young performers — she tells her life story. With captions.
(‘Cause she’s a cartoonist.)
How her father was a part-time teacher and part-time funeral director — FUN HOME was the family nickname for the funeral home — and a closeted gay man who slept with lots of boys and committed suicide while she was away at college.
Yeah.
But that’s not to say there weren’t moments of humor and laughter. Her first girl-on-girl experience in college inspired “Changing My Major to Joan,” one of my favorite songs in the show. And the kids did do a little Partridge Family at one point, so the graphic designer gets to keep his job.
The cast is all-around amazing. I do wish I had seen the show off-Broadway before they were plopped down into this in-the-round venue. It has led to a lot of ‘singing to the audience’ staging that seems amateurish for a story of such complexity.
It is quite a ride.
Posted in Broadway, Commentary, dancing, Entertainment, Family, Humor, Music, New York City, Relationships, Singing, theater
Tagged Broadway, captions, cartoonist, cast, clueless, college, critics, dancing, family, Fun Home, funeral director, funeral home, gay, graphic designer, Humor, in the round, laughter, lesbian, life story, mind blown, movie theatre, musical, narrator, Off-Broadway, parody, Partridge Family, performers, poster, review, singing, soundtrack, staging, suicide, teacher, Tony Award, Tony nominations
It delivers
More than a few critics included the thriller It Follows on their year’s best list…some saying it was one of the great scary films of all time.
Even with that ringing endorsement, I waited to watch the film until it was free on cable, and on early enough that I could shake off any creepiness long before bedtime.
Hey, I live alone.
I like the fact that it began in the middle – – no long exposition, so you are spooked from the start. There are plenty of reasons to jump and scream, but no gore which I personally appreciate. And the movie doesn’t tie everything up with a bow at the end, which increases the spook factor.
Is it the scariest movie I have ever seen? No. But it’s a good ‘un.
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Posted in Commentary, Entertainment, horror, Humor, Movies
Tagged commentary, entertainment, horror, Humor, It Follows, Movies, review, scary, spooky