In Animated Cartoon, Alison Bechdel Sees Her Life Go From Pulitizer Prize Winning Comic to Broadway Musical

No one is sur­prised when authors mine their per­son­al expe­ri­ences. If they’re lucky enough to strike gold, oth­er min­ers may be brought on to bring the sto­ries to the sil­ver screen. Here’s where things get tricky (if lucra­tive). No one wants to see his or her impor­tant life details get­ting roy­al­ly botched, espe­cial­ly when the results are blown up 70 feet across.

Car­toon­ist Ali­son Bechdel’s path to let­ting oth­ers take the reins as her sto­ry is immor­tal­ized in front of a live audi­ence is not the usu­al mod­el. The fam­i­ly his­to­ry she shared in the Pulitzer Prize-win­ning Fun Home: A Fam­i­ly Tragi­com­ic has been turned into a Broad­way musi­cal.

Now that would be a nail biter, espe­cial­ly if the non-fic­tion­al source mate­r­i­al includes a graph­i­cal­ly awk­ward first sex­u­al encounter and your clos­et­ed father’s sui­cide.

In the ani­mat­ed com­ic above, Bechdel recounts the sur­re­al expe­ri­ence of see­ing her most per­son­al expe­ri­ences musi­cal­ized dur­ing Fun Home’s recent Off-Broad­way run at the Pub­lic The­ater.

In the wrong hands, it could have been an excru­ci­at­ing evening, but Fun Home, the musi­cal, has had excel­lent pedi­gree from the get go.

It’s also worth not­ing that this show pass­es the infa­mous Bechdel Test (below) both onstage and off, with a book and lyrics by Lisa Kron and music by Jea­nine Tesori.

Pre­views begin next month in New York City.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Car­toon­ist Kate Beat­on Plays on Lit­er­ary Clas­sics — The Great Gats­by, Julius Cae­sar & More

Lyn­da Bar­ry, Car­toon­ist Turned Pro­fes­sor, Gives Her Old Fash­ioned Take on the Future of Edu­ca­tion

Under­ground Car­toon­ist R. Crumb Intro­duces Us to His Rol­lick­ing Album Cov­er Designs

Ayun Hal­l­i­day is an author, home­school­er, and Chief Pri­ma­tol­o­gist of the East Vil­lage Inky zine. Fol­low her @AyunHalliday