Musical 'Fun Home' gives 発言する／表明する to first lesbian lead character
By Patricia Reaney
NEW YORK, March 23 (Reuters) - Broadway is getting its first lesbian lead character next month when "Fun Home," an award-winning musical about family, sexuality and 受託, opens next month.
Based on the best-selling, graphic memoir, "Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic," by writer/漫画家 Alison Bechdel, the coming-of-age musical 診察するs her dysfunctional family and 関係 with her late father, a closeted gay man who ran a funeral home and taught English in 田舎の Pennsylvania.
The musical, a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for 演劇, begins previews at the Circle in the Square Theatre on April 19 after a sold-out, 延長するd run Off Broadway.
"It is the first lesbian lead character in the history of musical theater and that is a story that needs to be told," director Sam Gold said in an interview. "It feels like a very good time in our culture to give 発言する／表明する to that character."
Gold believes the 主題s of the musical, Bechdel's coming-out as a lesbian and the father-daughter story, will resonate with audiences.
多重の Tony 指名された人 Lisa Kron adapted the 調書をとる／予約する and 供給するd the lyrics to music by Jeanine Tesori.
Gold is also 行う／開催する／段階ing the show, whose 肩書を与える is the family's 縮めるd 指名する for funeral home, in the Circle's 一連の会議、交渉／完成する theater, which is a rarity for a musical and will give the audience a diff erent 視野.
"What it means is you are inside the show, with the characters," he said. "You have the same 関係 to the actors as the actors have to each other."
Three actresses play Bechdel - as a child, college student and an adult - in the 非，不，無-linear play. Beth Malone is the adult Bechdel and Emily Skeggs and Sydney Lucas play younger 見解／翻訳／版s of the author as she revisits her childhood, comes to 条件 with her sexuality and 取引，協定s with her fraught 関係 with her father.
"All of these things are 渦巻くing around 'Fun Home' as we tell the story of the detrimental cost of shame, and that is 最終的に what this is about, and the redemption that comes from forgiveness and living in truth," said Malone.
Tony 勝利者 Michael Cerveris ("暗殺者s") plays Bruce Bechdel, a brilliant man with an obsession for 回復するing the family's Victorian home and whose sudden death leaves unanswered questions.
"I think people are able to identify with the struggles of these characters, the 面s of 存在 a family," he said. "They are not 焦点（を合わせる）ing 単独で on Alison's or Bruce's 性の orientation." (Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy and Richard Chang)
