ABSTRACT
Fun Home, Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori’s musical, based on Alison Bechdel’s autobiographical graphic novel Fun Home: A Family Tragiocomic, examines the primary relationship of Alison and her father, Bruce, a demanding high school English teacher and Alison’s first formidable guide. This chapter investigates the representation of Bruce Bechtel as an intellectual and social guide to Alison Bechtel, blurring the lines between teacher and father. Bruce Bechtel’s incapacity to come to terms with his sexuality ultimately results in an inability to truly connect to Alison as a teacher or a father when it matters most.
