The musical Fun Home is one of those shows that makes you laugh delightedly in one moment and then despair in the next. It has increased pertinence due to its basis in truth. Fun Home is based on Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir. She grows up in her family home with an appearance obsessed father who owns a funeral home, called the titular ‘Fun Home’.
Over the nearly two hour production she tries to find peace with the events of her adolescence and her turbulent relationship with her father.
Led by three Alisons—Small Alison, age ten, Medium Alison, age 18, and Alison, age 43—Fun Home follows 43 year old Alison as she reminisces over snap shots of her childhood and tries to come to terms with her father’s suicide. She struggles with the guilt she feels but strives to see him in a better light.
Though not the happiest of musicals, Fun Home touches you where it counts and elicits genuine emotion form its audience, following suit with the myriad of productions coming from the Denver Center of Performing Arts (DCPA).
Fun Home’s run is over. Upcoming shows include the ‘sinfully funny’ An Act of God, Motown The Musical, and many more performances which promise to be just as fantastic. Check out www.denvercenter.org/for more information.