That’s fun as in funeral home. And that’s the bittersweet tone of this Tony-winning musical, FUN HOME, at the Forrest Theatre through June 18. Although this vast theater isn’t the best venue for such an intimate play, this production still manages to be moving, even on such a big, distancing stage. Sam Gold, who directed the 2015 Broadway production has redirected this cast on tour.
Alison Bechdel’s best-selling graphic memoir FUN HOME was adapted by Lisa Kron (book and lyrics) and Jeanine Tesori (music). The show begins as a memory play with the 43-year-old Alison (Kate Shindle) trying to reconstruct her past, sketching her world, remembering her childhood; the first song is called, “It All Comes Back” and we watch her young self (Carly Gold) sing, “Daddy! Hey, Daddy, come here, okay? I need you.”
The show chronicles Alison’s discovery of her homosexuality, from the young girl who is dazzled by a woman she sees in a diner who was “old school butch” with her dungarees and short hair and ring of keys, to the middle Alison (the charming Abby Corrigan) in her freshman year at Oberlin coming out as gay both to herself and her parents.
Daddy (Robert Petkoff) is the large and central fact of Alison’s life, a man obsessed with restoring old houses, collecting old furniture, polishing silver—trying to get to some truth below the tarnished surface. The truth of his life is that he is a closeted gay man with a history of spurious sex on the sly; a corny lyric tells us, “Their tawdry love could only flourish in the shadows,” giving the lighting designer, Ben Stanton, a great opportunity, although too much of the show seems to exist in shadow, hiding the onstage band and creating general murk everywhere.
Alison’s long-suffering mother (Susan Moniz, in excellent voice) seems helpless as he bullies her three children with misused parental authority. Alison, like many neglected children, is utterly devoted to Daddy, and her mother warns her not to come home, not to give up her life as she did, in the powerful song, “Days and Days.”
FUN HOME is both a musical and a family drama; it’s also an activist declaration: hiding who you are is likely to be tragic.
[Forrest Theatre, 1114 Walnut Street] June 13-18, 2017 (additional dates in other cities); funhomebroadway.com/tour.php
I was really interested in this musical once I read a little bit more about Alison Brechtel. Fun home is a play on words about the funeral business her father ran. And the day she came out to her parents her father got ran over by a bus! I want to see more of these drawings about the comedy she find in declaring her sexuality.
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2006/06/18/books/review/18wilsey.html
Check out this book review from the New York Times. She is a memoirist, cartoonist, and philosopher searching for truth while investigating her past.