NEW YORK (AP) – When it comes to breaking new ground in the theater, the axiom, “Chance favors the prepared mind” sometimes works out nicely. Just ask “Fun Home” composers Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron.
Not only does their musical introduce a new type of heroine to the Broadway stage, but Tesori and Kron can make history when the Tony awards are announced next month.
If they win, the pair will become the first female writing team to nab a Tony for musical score. The last time two women were even nominated was back in 1991 when Lucy Simon and Marsha Norman got the nod for “The Secret Garden.”
Regardless of the outcome, Tesori and Kron have already plotted a course through unchartered territory with their coming-of-age story of a young woman unravelling her sexual identity.
“There’s an invisibility of the lesbian experience in musical theater. There is none and it’s 2015. There should be a history of it,” Tesori said.