iTunes Exclusive Episode Fun Home

So If you are hearing the sound of my voice, it means the following conditions have been met. At least once in your life, you have checked out the clubhouse podcast live every Sunday night, 7 Eastern, 4 Pacific, you are one stop shop for all things pop culture, but it also means you subscribe to this show in your favorite podcast app, because it's time for another iTunes exclusive, the 317th one of these, as my computer approves. Welcome, my name is Rob, I am the executive producer of the clubhouse podcast, and on the day we record this, it's been a heck of a ride the last few months, but we're going to talk about that in our normal weekly show, so you want to make sure to check that one out too.

But I'm not alone for this episode, joining me across the desk in the co-host chair is the lady of the house, and someone who's going to be just kind of along for the ride on this, because she wants to hear about this, she is Jen Roan, welcome friend. Good evening. And next to her is the official fact checker in this show, and the only person in the room that will be able to properly review what we're about to talk about, because he was there.

You may know him as fond Don Go, but his mom and even Don Ford, I'm going to call him Don Ford Welcome. Hey, hello, everybody. I want to apologize ahead of time if I sound a little bit off, been having some issues with allergies the last few days, pretty much when I got off the plane from vacation of my allergies, just performed an all out of salt on my system.

Well, we want to say welcome back, we're glad you're safe, and they made it back. Oh, we're going to tell the whole story in an episode, that's season eight, episode 10, so be prepared for that. Whatever we do, one of these, it is to review something, and this is no exception.

The AT&T Performing Arts Center brings another award-winning production to the Dallas Fort Worth area at the Winspir Opera House through September 24th. It is called Fun Home. Before we start this whole thing, we got to think Cindy Evans, we got to think AT&T Pack, the whole group of a Winspir Opera House.

We love it, everybody. Awesome people. I apologize that I could not make it out for this particular event.

I had literally just gotten off a plane that I should have been on two days later. Long story, again, we'll talk about it in the normal show. This is based on a graphic novel from a lady named Allison Bechdel.

I hope I got that right. And it takes place in three different time frames, when she was young, when she was in college and in present day. And a lot of it deals with coming to grips with who you are, and not only her, but other members of her family too, are dealing with issues of identity and issues of growth and issues of what the truth really is.

It is a musical, but there's, if I'm not mistaken, Don, as I'm looking through this program, they didn't even tell you, like, what the songs were. No. And there's no intermission.

Yeah. Two hours straight. We'll get to that in a minute.

Two hours straight through. There's some music in it, but it's not a musical for something like the King and I or the Santa music. Put it that way.

It's not. Is it more incidental music or is it just a company, but not a huge part? Fair enough.

So let's get right into it, Don. Let's talk about, first of all, again, without an intermission. Yeah.

That's a bold statement to do because your normal first act in a film, or, and I'm sorry, in a production, runs about an hour 30 and hour 40. In this case, it's two hours straight. Talk about how that felt for you in comparison.

I saw people getting up and mid-show by about two-thirds of the way through getting up because they had to go to the restroom. Did they come back? Yeah.

Okay. So it wasn't like they were leaving. Yeah.

It was just like, look, I have to get outside for a minute. Yeah. I think it was a mistake not to have an intermission.

There were about two or three spots where I thought they could do a good break here. It would hurt the production. It would hurt the flow.

And so I think that was a mistake when they wrote this or they got the ideas for this you name it, because two hours is still long time. I don't care what you're saying, sitting in there. And people, you could tell people needed a break.

And I didn't know that there was not an intermission. And I'm thinking, when this thing comes up, I go, if this is going to be their mission, oh, this is long. Oh.

Yeah, the only thing, the only reason I knew that it's, I did read it on its wicked pdf. Yeah. Because I wanted to do a little bit of research before we recorded this.

So I didn't, I didn't want to sound, you know, any more idiotic than I normally do. There was one line in the program. There was one little line in the program where I had the cast list and stuff.

There is a line that says there is no intermission, you know, so I think a lot of people knew that. So I still think it would have made the play a little bit better. I'm so you think it would have helped people.

Did they announce that before the press would you think that would have benefited them? Have they done that? Yeah.

Yeah, I think some people, yeah. Sorry. Or a sign or something, because of course at Winsmere, they have the nice cafe there.

And people have beverages and the approved glasses go to the seat. And I see what you're saying there. So my thought process there is, if they're not going to read it in the program, they probably won't read the sign either.

Well, they can do the big signs. There's a big difference between one little line in the thing and then sign it up. Okay.

Or a big sign by the bar. Yeah. While you're getting your drink, you can see, hey, there is no intermission.

Make sure you do what you need to do before you sit down. So you talked about the cast space. Let's talk about the cast.

First, you've got, Allison as an adult play by Kate Shindle. Allison, as a child, is depending on who you, what performances you go to, it would be Carly Gold or Jane Schwartz and Medium Allison, which I guess would be her, her, her college years. That would be Abby Corian.

Yeah. Let me kind of get into that. Yes, because I really, because you said something very interesting in your written review located at www.theclubhousepodcast.com.

That's our website. As it pertains to this. And I thought it was really interesting.

So go ahead. There really is no third time frame. When the current day, Allison, okay, she's basically on the stage, 90 something percent of the time sitting in the back and coming up and talking, then going back.

Okay. So it's more, is it, is it give you like a more visual version of a one-woman show kind of a thing? No.

I wouldn't say it's a one-woman show. Not gonna say just that style of, she's really there the whole time. Yeah.

But instead of her telling the stories, they're acting the stories out in front of you. Yeah. So she'd start talking.

This is my story. Then starts with the childhood. She's kind of in the back.

Then it goes to, then she'll say something and then here comes the college days and she'll come out and say something and then go back to the college days. And then it flips to the childhood days again. So it's not necessarily linear storytelling.

It does jump between the two time frames. Okay. Fair enough.

Yeah. So it'll go back and forth between the childhood time and the adult time. And the way they kind of did the story with some issues that happened with their family.

And let's just get out of here so the empire is aware. You know, if you want to say minor spoiler, three, two, don't say the one. This is about her being bisexual.

Okay. So let's just talk about it because that's a major part of the plot. Well, in sexuality plays a role.

I don't want to go too deep into it, but it does play a role for more than just her in this production. And not only how it affects her family, but how other people in her family may be struggling there in this world. Yes.

That's the best way it played. Perfect identity. And you know, it's so I did like how they went back and forth because you'll see how certain things in a childhood lead to what happens in college.

And then in the college times you look back and then you can see it, then it goes back to the childhood and that stuff that they did in college looks, you know, leads to something you're going to see in the childhood. So I, some you see in college will enhance something that's coming up in the childhood stage. You can see how they both interlinked stuff that happened in childhood stuff that happened.

So you can see how decisions made at one point affect things down the road. Yes. Okay.

So we choose that, you know, that we're coming out with like the family members is on going to say, but where I'm really going with my original question though is you talked a little bit in your written review, located at www.theclubhousepodcast.com, which is our website about how the three actresses played the role consistently. Yes. And I want you to talk about that a little bit because when you're dealing with different people playing the same character at different points in their life, it's important that there's some kind of a continuity there.

And you actually did talk about that in your review and I kind of want you to go into that just a little bit. Well, I'll give you an idea. The small Allison, the physicality is a lot different.

These are three different people, okay? The current day Allison is that, you know, bisexual lady who has the glasses in the short hair, you could kind of even doubt that she's, you know, a lesbian, okay? There's a, there's a, she fashions a certain look.

Yeah. Okay. And then the, the college day Allison is a lady kind of has her first experience.

Let's just put it out there. She has her first relationship and her first experience of becoming, you know, a lesbian. And, but she's kind of that look that's kind of halfway there.

But as an adult, she has that full bloated kind of physical look, the way she has the hair and all that. Okay. Fascinating.

Yes. Of course, the girl, there's not really any kind of thing for the girl style. She's not really that dealing with the sexuality as a, as a six-year-old girl, seven-year-old girl, but someone else in the family is.

But the little traits that they do throughout the different three, the between the three practices, their language, their, their body ability, their body language, their verbiage, everything, mannerisms, every perfect word where they're trying to say, yes, I'm a different person right now. I'm a different actress. Yes, I'm a little bit older and I have a different look, but we're still that same person on the court.

But at the core of it, we are that. The court. Yeah.

They really played the core traits of saying, this is still Allison. I'm Allison because of my, the way I talk, what I say, my mannerism. It's the way I act, the way my physicality, the way I move, my emotions, all that.

It's that same person, which I really give it to for those three, those three, I think really did a lot of get, let's get together, let's talk. Let's, when we're on stage, we do this, when we're on stage, we do that. That kind of thing.

Okay. Was there, I mean, so would you say that the rest of the cast's complemented to three of them well? Yes, yes.

I think, if I haven't give like a okay shout out, we had to be Joan who was played by Victoria Jan, Janicky Janicky who plays her first partner, you could say, all right. First relationship. But the shout out, hit it out of the park, what was played to the character Bruce by Robert Peckoff who plays her father.

Her father? Okay. Yes.

Because he's dealing with issues. Put it that way. All right.

And he is a guy. In my review at www.covasspodcast.com. That's our website.

You know, I've dealt with people that have committed crimes that are not really took acceptable with society. With society. Okay.

And he gets caught doing something not horrible, horrible. But it's like, oops, you're in got caught in a cookie jar. All right.

And he's one of those guys who, a lot of those people try to minimize what they did. They try to make excuses. They try to downplay the role.

But they did something big. They still did a boo boo. And he's the guy who plays that kind of personality of a guy who did a boo boo of minimizing it, making excuses, oh, it's not that bad.

He does that incredible. Plus there are some scenes where the emotions hit and it's like those scenes where when it comes down and they're really talking about, let's talk about this. The emotions fly and he lets it rip and he does incredible.

And also there's so many times where he, the daughter will say, why did you send this? I think that enhanced why I became what I am today. Why did you send this book?

Why did you do this? Why did you do that? Because I think in his mind, he knew she was, she was in the closet and wanted to come out in some ways.

He may have helped her. And when he asked, she said, why did you do this? Why did you do that?

He just goes, he avoided it. Any kind of serious things where she wanted to get serious with the dad. He just said, let me take it for a ride.

I got to do this. I got to do that. So he had so many different personalities in this role.

It's a tough role to play and he did it incredibly well. Let me bring up a couple of points from Chad's review and I want you to compare and contrast a couple of things from his written review versus yours. One of the things that he said in his review was he felt like he more survived it than got through it.

If that makes any sense, it was very emotionally heavy. Oh, yeah, from his standpoint, because he also, he went into this. He said very little research completely cold like I'd and he wishes now that he would have done some research beforehand because it a lot of it took him off guard.

Agreed disagree. Agreed. Because this can get real emotional.

That's what I'm saying that how Robert Petkoff hit it out of the park because there's so many hit home things that a lot of families can see that this film touches this. This is holds no bars, you know, this, this production bars, no holds, yeah, whatever. Find home real misleading title.

Don't take the kids to this. This is not a fun home. Okay.

So there's another point that he said that yes, that he found it tough to review it because it had stuck with him so long afterwards. Did because he called me right afterwards. I'd forgotten that you guys were there and I had to ask him a question and I felt horrible because I'm hoping that his phone was on fire.

Yeah. And if it wasn't, that's my fault. Did this stick with you like it stuck with him because he said he didn't get a chance to talk to you afterwards.

So it didn't really stick with me, but 100 degrees because you know, there, I could see this hitting home with a lot of families, but the subject matter didn't really hit home with me. Maybe a little bit of my dad, you can say a little bit, but with some people where you have those family issues, this production can really get in depth and talk about where you have issues with the parents and the parents weren't there or the parents did this or the parents were bad about that. And when you as an adult, you tried to address them and they run from it and won't you be an answer and pretend like nothing happened.

Watch out. I mean, the person who plays the wife, Helen, her mother, played by Susan Monois, Monois Monois. She plays that wife who knows it, but just kind of ignores it or tries to pretend she knows nothing about it because then tight.

All right, so anything with any, any downside to anything you didn't like. The flow was good. The acting was incredible.

The subject matter and how they handled it was incredible. Going back and forth was good, but they needed the break. Okay, so you said that the downside to it was there should have been even a short intermission.

Yeah, 15 minute an hour into this thing, have a 15 minute intermission and there about two, three spots where they could have done it and it wouldn't hurt the flow of the production. Okay. The biggest, biggest complaint.

All right, you ready for the file analysis? Is that a question? Okay.

All right. Lady of the house says nothing. Okay.

We're going to get the file analysis on this show. We're not going to give you thumbs up, thumbs down. We're not going to give you letter grades, numbers, anything like that.

This is a stage production, so it's going to be a little bit different. The first question is always the same as would you see this again, and the answers know that we're done here. If the answer is yes, since this is a stage production, the question becomes, where are you willing to sit?

Because where you're willing to sit depends on how much money you're willing to spend showing your commitment to it. Don, would you see this production again? Yes.

Where you sitting? Now, before I give this out, I have to warn the empire, this is not for the kids, this deals with, you know, sucks. Very, very adult, fun.

Yeah. And this may offend some people. This, this production may really offend some, go do the research, do the research, be on that.

Just go to the Wikipedia page. Tell us everything you need. Yeah.

Exactly. But I would say honestly mine would be the main four in the back of the main four. Okay.

So not, not the row, but not in the bow. Yeah. Not middle, not the prime section, but maybe not the full price, but maybe the second tier price range.

All right. Cool. Yeah.

It was great. Yeah. But you need to that break.

You're only showing at the WinSphere Opera House through September 24th or someday, very soon in a city near you. It is called Fun Home. Again, we got to thank Cindy, everybody ATVPAC, WinSphere Opera House, we love them.

Thanks, Cindy. All right. Let's do the plugs.

Visit our website. You might have heard it once or twice. www.theclubhousepodcast.com, find out everything you need to know and some stuff you don't.

Follow us on social media, Twitter is clubhouse show, everything else is the clubhouse podcast, all three words in that order or you will wind up somewhere else. You can follow me on social media. I am, yes, that Rob Urban that has spelled ERVIN.

My normal co-host for this show is Chad Wammett. You can follow him at ChadNPG69. I'm Jen Roam home on Instagram and I'm at Fan Dongloon.

You can email me at Don at theclubhousepodcast.com. Email Don for information on how we can come to a live show for you. We love doing live remote shows and hanging out with the empire.

You can email me, questions, comments, concerns, tell me to go pound, sand, I am rob at theclubhousepodcast.com. Chad is Chad at theclubhousepodcast.com. Charlotte Parker is on Pinterest because we're morally obligated to say that.

Jules Wammett is where Chad is normally and Faith Ford is at the house chilling on show. She got a cold. She's getting a little better.

Tell her I feel ashamed. She enjoyed it though. All right.

It's Sunday night, 7 Eastern, 4 Pacific, a sure one stop shop for all things pop culture. Or just keep subscribed on your favorite podcast app. So until next time, for Don, for Jen for the Empire, I'm Rob, for any Palmer reference, but I'm sick so I can't make one that's really good.