Tonys 2015: ‘Fun Home’ wins best musical

“Fun Home” snagged the top honor at the Tonys on Sunday for best musical. The production, based on Alison Bechdel’s acclaimed graphic memoir, earned 12 nods and was considered a front-runner.

The best musical category was particularly rich and diverse this year, with only four nominees instead of five, perhaps speaking to voters’ discerning tastes. “An American in Paris,” “Something Rotten!” and “The Visit” were also nominated.

Bechdel’s edgy, coming-of-age story might not have seemed the most obvious source material for a major Broadway musical. It’s about growing up in a small Pennsylvania town in an eccentric family that runs a funeral home, with a closeted gay father as Bechdel herself, struggles with being gay. Shortly after she came out to her father, he died in what appears to have been a suicide.

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Directed by Sam Gold, with music by Jeanine Tesori and a book and lyrics by Lisa Kron, the musical adaptation was a hit with audiences, striking a cultural chord as issues of transgender and gay marriage have surfaced in the news lately.

The show was developed at the Ojai Playwrights Conference and Sundance theater lab. It played at New York’s Public Theater before heading to Broadway.

Twitter: @debvankin