Stage musical
Fun Home has been adapted into a stage musical, with a book by Lisa Kron and music by Jeanine Tesori. The musical was developed through a 2009 workshop at the Ojai Playwrights Conference and workshopped in 2012 at the Sundance Theatre Lab and The Public Theater's Public Lab.[153][154][155] Bechdel did not participate in the musical's creation. She expected her story to seem artificial and distant on stage, but she came to feel that the musical had the opposite effect, bringing the "emotional heart" of the story closer than even her book did.[156]
The musical debuted Off-Broadway at The Public Theater on September 30, 2013.[18] The production was directed by Sam Gold and starred Michael Cerveris and Judy Kuhn as Bruce and Helen Bechdel. The role of Alison was played by three actors: Beth Malone played the adult Alison, reviewing and narrating her life, Alexandra Socha played "Medium Alison" as a student at Oberlin, discovering her sexuality, and Sydney Lucas played Small Alison, at age 10. It received largely positive reviews,[157][158][159] and its limited run was extended several times until January 12, 2014.[19] The musical was a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama; it also won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical, and the Obie Award for Musical Theater.[21][22][23][24] Alison Bechdel drew a one-page comic about the musical adaptation for the newspaper Seven Days.[160]
A Broadway production opened at Circle in the Square Theatre in April 2015. The production won five 2015 Tony Awards, including Best Musical,[161] and ran for 26 previews and 582 regular performances until September 10, 2016, with a national tour that began in October 2016.[162] Kalle Oskari Mattila, in The Atlantic, argued that the musical's marketing campaign "obfuscates rather than clarifies" the queer narrative of the original novel.[163]
Potential musical film
In January 2020, Jake Gyllenhaal and a partner secured the rights to produce a film version of the musical, planning to star Gyllenhaal as Bruce Bechdel with Sam Gold directing and Amazon MGM Studios distributing.[164] In 2023, according to Alison Bechdel, she will not have direct involvement on the project and Gyllenhaal was no longer involved in any upcoming film adaptation. She did, however, say "They're still trying to make this movie happen, but it will have a different star."[165] However, on April 2, 2024, Gyllenhaal was confirmed to remain involved on the film as a producer when he and his Nine Stories Productions banner signed a first-look deal with Amazon MGM.[166]
