Saturday 1st May 2021, 7:30pm, Roslyn Packer Theatre, Sydney Captivating, heartwarming and heartbreaking, Jeanine Tesori (Music) and Lisa Kron's (Book and Lyrics) adaptation of Alison Bechdel's graphic memoir FUN HOME has finally opened in Sydney after a pandemic induced delay. Director Dean Bryant, supported by Music Director Carmel Dean, delivers an original expression of the multi award winning musical that broke barriers as it put a lesbian character and her discovery of her own and her father's sexuality in the spotlight. Bringing a book to stage, FUN HOME draws on the creative process that American cartoonist Alison Bechdel used to create FUN HOME: A FAMILY TRAGICOMIC, her graphic memoir that was first published in 2006. Accounts state Bechdel's meticulous creative process which included studying old photographs, recreating physical stances to photograph before translating to paper and studying physical elements from her past resulted in the novel taking 7 years to be completed. It is this attention to detail along with the underlying understandings and enlightenment that such a personal project would unearth that forms the thread that runs through the adaptation as a 40 something Alison (Lucy Maunder) oversees all the unfolding memories from her childhood (role shared between Mia Honeysett, Karelina Clarke and Katerina Kotsopoulos) and her college years (Maggie McKenna), either from behind her studio standing desk, closer to the action with sketchpad and pen in hand or simply observing and studying the memory to be translated to the page later. FUN HOME shares not only Alison's journey to understanding herself, eventually being comfortable to openly express her sexuality, but also her relationship with her parents, particularly her father Bruce (Adam Murphy) who was never able to be open about his own homosexuality and the realization that even though the two were alike in many ways, they often sat at other ends of the spectrum of that connection.