Fun Home review – Alison Bechdel’s musical memoir feels every emotion

Royal Exchange, Manchester
A celebration of the cartoonist’s sexual awakening and queer identity as well as an investigation of darker family dynamics, this soulful show wears its heart on its sleeve

The “fun” in the title is short for funeral, a reference to the family undertaking business inherited by Alison Bechdel’s father. But there is some fun, too, in this heart-filled musical adaptation of the cartoonist’s illustrated memoir. First seen in the UK in 2018 and now revived by director Sarah Frankcom in a fluid in-the-round staging, it brings a light touch to a story freighted with emotion.

Published in 2006, the graphic novel describes the author’s sexual awakening – she kissed a girl and she liked it – one that coincided with the discovery of her father’s clandestine gay life. In the musical adaptation by Lisa Kron (book and lyrics) and Jeanine Tesori (music), it becomes a layered reckoning of past and present, as the 43-year-old Bechdel (Jodie McNee) reflects on her student self (Alice Audrey O’Hanlon) reflecting on her childhood self (Felicity Moore at my performance).