Musical Review: “Fun Home”

One of the most satisfying experiences in musical theatre is when a composer taps into powerful and recognizable emotional moments, and against all odds, finds a way to set these revelations to music. The audience is left wondering: “how did they do that?”. Sometimes it’s a youth overwhelmed with love, as in ‘On the Street Where You Live’ in My Fair Lady. It may be something more impossible, like a demon barber realizing his blood-lust in Sweeney Todd‘s ‘Epiphany’. Well, I’m happy to report that Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron have achieved the impossible with Fun Home. I don’t know how they did it.

On the surface, the story seems impossible to set to music. Based on Alison Bechdel’s autobiographical graphic novel, the show delves into the author’s coming out journey and her closeted father’s suicide. This isn’t a spoiler. As Allison tells us early on, “My Dad and I both grew up in the same small Pennsylvania town and he was gay and I was gay, and he killed himself, and I became a lesbian cartoonist”. The musical, like Allison herself, is less interested about what happened, and more interested in finding out why and how.

An adult Alison (Beth Malone) is reliving old memories in order to write her novel. Two other actresses play Allison as a child (Syndey Lucas) and in her college years (Emily Skeggs). Malone is ever-present, hovering around the edges as the narrator of her life. All three Alison’s have a desperate desire to connect with their father Bruce (Michael Cerveris). Bruce has a wife Helen (Judy Kuhn) but is deeply in the closet and has affairs with several men (all played by Joel Perez). Bruce’s pressure to lead a perfect normal life, including running the family business (a funeral fun home), greatly wear on his wife and children. His daughter’s eventual coming out has shocking effects on him.

Jeanine Tesori is one of the greatest working composers today. Her partnership with book writer and first time lyricist Lisa Kron proves a harmonious match. Together they expertly capture the humanity of each individual in the family with music and dialogue seamlessly woven together. The music also does a sublime job at capturing the frustrations, delights, and unreliability of memory.

Each Alison does remarkable work. Emily Skeggs is delightful with a hysterical and touching number after her first sexual encounter with her college friend Joan (‘Changing My Major’). Her wild enthusiasm and bold declarations of admiration for her lover’s pillow drool gets the audience laughing with recognition. Malone’s adult Allison sings with desperation and poignancy in ‘Telephone Wire’, attempting to muster up the courage to speak up to her Father on a mostly silent car ride.

It is the eleven year old Sydney Lucas who gets the best number of the show. ‘Ring of Keys’ describes the inner-workings of Allison’s mind when confronted with an out lesbian, before she even knows what that term means. Upon the sight of a butch delivery woman, Ms. Lucas brings us on a journey of confusion, admiration, and ultimately recognition as she tries to figure out her gravitation to this stranger. With a determined belt and heartbreaking head voice, this young actress successfully sings through the delicate act of processing one’s own sexuality for the first time. It’s not only the best song of the show, it’s one of the most magical stage moments I’ve had the pleasure to witness.

Director Sam Gold has masterfully re-worked the show for the theatre-in-the-round setting of the Circle in the Square Theatre. Set pieces stealthily emerge and disappear through the floor, creating a seamless dreamlike sensation as Allison walks through her own memories. The lighting design and sparsely staged numbers created an intimate atmosphere where the audience can easily grab hold of the nuances in the actors’ work.

Most importantly, Gold keeps the piece anchored in humanity and subtlety. All of the aforementioned songs are “showstoppers”, but none require a kick-line or jazz hands. The closest we get to a big ensemble dance number is when, oblivious to the morbidity and oddness of their lyrics, Young Alison and her brothers create a hilarious disco-themed funeral home commercial.

Gold has directed his actors with a sense of naturalism. I was struck by how effortlessly the actors were able to give powerhouse performances without ever pushing or scene chewing (a refreshingly different take for Broadway). Judy Kuhn proves to be the master of this technique. In ‘Days and Days’ she paints a portrait of a woman quietly breaking as she recounts the sacrifices she made in her marriage.

I’ve gotten this far and haven’t even mentioned the incomparable Michael Cerveris. His father figure is intensely troubled, scared, and filled with self loathing. Cerveris (a Tony winner for Assassins) nails the inner turmoil of a man who struggles daily to put on a facade, who unleashes his own self loathing on his daughter, and who somehow still enlists empathy from the audience. Though Allison Bechdel was on a long quest to form some connection with a father who remained a stranger,  the saddest part of this true tale is that the man was ultimately a stranger to himself. I can think of no better actor than Cerveris to telegraph these frustrations and fears.

It has been quite some time since a Broadway show moved me as much as Fun Home. Yet, despite heavy seeming topics, it never ventured too far into depressing territory. This is thanks to Mr. Gold’s direction and Ms. Tesori’s career best music that finds humanity, humor, and pathos in every moment. Fun Home is an instant classic. This is storytelling at it’s best.

Fun Home
Circle in the Square Theatre
Music by: Jeanine Tesori, Book and Lyrics by: Lisa Kron
Directed by: Sam Gold
Starring: Michael Cerveris, Beth Malone, Judy Kuhn, Emily Skeggs, and Sydney Lucas
Runtime: 1 Hour, 45 minute, no intermission