Paramount’s Bold series is back at the Copley Theatre with Fun Home, a Broadway musical based on a graphic novel by Alison Bechdel. This delightful and thoughtful show portrays the main character, Alison, examining conflicted memories of her father from two earlier stages of her life: as a child and at the beginning of her college years.
There are heart-wrenching moments and side-splitting laughter. “Fun Home” is how Alison and her brothers refer to their family business, a funeral home, as they sing an enchanting song explaining why their funeral home is the best in town. Good luck keeping a straight face during that one. Or during Alison’s “Changing My Major” number, though I can’t say what brings that on without spoilers… so go see it.
The heartbreak increases the closer as the end approaches because, as Alison warned viewers at the beginning, her father committed suicide, and the story she’s exploring is her attempt at understanding why. That includes reliving her final moments with him, when she was desperately trying to get him to accept her as she was. She touches on some difficult topics that are just as important today as the era it’s set in.
Really, go see it.