Part of what’s fascinating about the Broadway adaptation, with its script and lyrics by Lisa Kron and music by Jeanine Tesori, is how closely it adheres to the outline and details of Bechdel’s story—yet so differs from the book that it seems to be a related but entirely original work.

For the New York Review of Books blog, Francine Prose reviews the Broadway adaptation of Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home and discusses how a change of genre can change the art.