A couple of years ago I had the good fortune to get tickets to Fun Home. It was an incredible bit of luck that led me to get half price off tickets at TKTS. I've always been a broadway geek but never before had I had the pleasure of seeing the story of someone like myself on that stage.
For the very first time, I saw something that had been tailor made for ME. It was a show about the early years of a lesbian cartoonist. And the songs - I could feel them in my bones. One of them, Ring of Keys, is about recognizing for the very first time that someone is like you.
Someone just came in the door.
Like no one I ever saw before.
I feel...
I feel...
I don't know where you came from.
I wish I did
I feel so dumb.
I feel...
Your swagger and your bearing
and the just right clothes you're wearing
Your short hair and your dungarees
And your lace up boots.
And your keys oh
Your ring of keys.
I thought it was s'pposed to be wrong
But you seem okay with being strong
I want...to...
You're so...
It's probably conceited to say,
But I think we're alike in a certain way
I...um...
Your swagger and your bearing
and the just right clothes you're wearing
Your short hair and your dungarees
And your lace up boots.
And your keys oh
Your ring of keys.
Do you feel my heart saying hi?
In this whole luncheonette
Why am I the only one who see you're beautiful?
[Spoken]
No, I mean
[Sung]
Handsome!
Your swagger and your bearing
and the just right clothes you're wearing
Your short hair and your dungarees
And your lace up boots.
And your keys oh
Your ring of keys.
I know you
I know you
I know you
I have felt that knowing. That moment of I am different, and so are you, and that's not just okay, it's wonderful. One of the first times I felt that feeling was actually at a broadway show. I was seven or eight, I picked up on the subtext between Elphaba and Glinda (the answer to what is this feeling is NOT loathing). There was something different there, and maybe I saw it in myself too. I swear, I had dreams where I tried to keep the two of them together after the second act. Little gay me, writing femslash fanfic in her dreams.
Watching Fun Home was an experience like no other because it was a show about ME. I have seen many, many shows about gay men. There's a new one on broadway every season. But shows about people like me? Are few and far between.
I can think of a few musicals with queer female characters. There's Fun Home, Rent, The Color Purple, and If/Then. I'm probably missing one or two, but the point is... there is a serious lack of queer musicals and many of the shows that do have queer women only have them as side characters. I'm well aware that broadway is full of gay men and that this skews the results a bit, but what about that girl out there who's looking to find that moment where she recognizes what's on stage and finally understands herself? Girls deserve that moment too. We deserve media that reflects us. We deserve to be able to look at a show and say "I know you."
