Spring 2015. You’re at Fun Home, a musical based on Alison’s Bechdel’s memoir of growing up in a funeral home, embracing her queer identity, and confronting her father’s closeted homosexuality and suicide. As grim as that may sound, the musical is rather, well, fun. It’s staged in-the-round on a sparse stage with eclectic furnishings while Alison, a middle-aged butch lesbian, sits behind a drafting table. She sings a prologue about how “it all comes back,” and for the rest of the performance she watches and comments on episodes from her past. The first memory features a ten-year-old Small Alison and the rest of the Bechdel clan—her father (Bruce), mother (Helen), and siblings—as they prepare their home for an important visitor. Helen tries to keep a positive attitude while both meeting Bruce’s exacting standards and shielding her children from his temper. At the end of the number, adult Alison comments, “Caption: My dad and I both grew up in the same, small Pennsylvania town. And he was gay, and I was gay. And he...killed himself. And I…become a lesbian cartoonist.” Scenes featuring Small Alison alternate with scenes following Medium Alison during her freshman year at Oberlin College. Through these vignettes—connected by a tuneful score by composer Jeanine Tesori and lyricist/librettist Lisa Kron that is full of ear worms and heart—we get a picture of Alison’s complicated relationship with her parents, their difficult marriage, and her own sexual orientation. Late in the show, Adult Alison remembers fateful visit to a luncheonette with Bruce. Small Alison sees a butch delivery woman, prompting a sweet moment of personal discovery, “Ring of Keys.”

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