Managed to sneakily watch Fun Home as I'm waiting for the copy of the book I ordered to come. Very interested to see how what I watched differs from the source material. When I finally get the book I'll make a post comparing the two in some key areas.
Really loved how they translated Alison Bechdel's role of narrator into the live production. In the comic her comments and telling of the story outside of the panels is done in caption boxes. In the musical they have a actor playing Alison's modern self has a pad and pencil, and moves around the scenes, shouting [CAPTION] before inserting some commentary. This is particularly moving during the last conversation with her father, and when she speaks of her father's suicide. Her repetition of the word [CAPTION] makes the scene extremely climatic and emotional.
I presume in the comic these are either blank caption boxes OR there are non at all. If they are blank I feel it would have made the moment seem like Alison Bechdel is silent and contemplative, or if there are no caption boxes then the emotions we get from her artwork are left to shine through without her commentary. In the musical her emotional repetition of the word caption makes her seem bursting with emotions and unable to speak even though she knows she must continue the story.
Since I'm not examining the musical in my essay I don't know if I should examine any bit in great detail. We'll have to see if it feeds in or not. I'm doing more about the comic and how using comics as a medium affects the story but the musical also had some very interesting parts.
Overall the tone of the Fun Home musical, although saddening, has parts that are much more upbeat than the comic, but due to the art style, colours and pacing of the comic, it feels overall much more somber than it's live counterpart. The live counterpart's songs are a balanced mix of lively, fast paced, slow paced and somber.
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