Pangdemonium's 'Fun Home'

Took a deep breath and sat through Pangdemonium’s musical ‘Fun Home’ written by Lisa Kron, and with music by Jeanine Tesori. This musical is based on Alison Bechdel's graphic memoir 'Fun Home' (2007).

I like Alison Bechdel's humor in her drawings, and I love her honest and frank sharing in her autobiographical memoir about her struggle with gender identities and roles, and the painful relationship with her father, a funeral director in the family business of operating a funeral home. But, well, this is a musical, and would unfortunately involve singing. The ‘fun’ in the title stands for funeral. I’m not sure that the grahic novel translates well onto stage as a musical. It felt a little, thin. Perhaps it was in the way it was presented. But yeah, it’s the dramatization of one person’s family and personal drama, identifiable with many.

The singing on stage was a little grating, never mind how good it might be. I cannot deal with singing when one could simply speak. There was one song I didn’t mind- when the children sang the cute little tune as a ‘commercial’ to their funeral home business while dancing around and atop the coffin. Think it's called 'Come to the Fun Home'. I obediently lasted through the 80-minute musical. It’s a fitting round-up to their 2017 season which has depicted alternative family models instead of the traditional ones we know and what our society is comfortable with.

Bought the theatre company's 2018 season ticket. Looked at its line-up and realized that I'd probably watch one out of its three scheduled shows ('The Father' written by Florian Zeller), because I've watched 'Dragonflies', and the last one is always the dreaded musical (Rick Elice's 'Peter and the Starcatcher') I'm never keen on. Oh well, it's mainly to support Pangdemonium and its work. I could always give the tickets away since redeeming them on SISTIC in e-ticket format makes it a breeze.