Fun Home, Huntington Theatre Company, presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals, Huntington Mainstage, through December 14. 617-266-0080 or Huntingtontheatre.org
Alison Bechdel turned her memories of family life in rural Pennsylvania into a provocative 2006 graphic novel entitled "Fun Home." The acclaimed memoir focused on her own development from child to college student to fully adult woman and her evolving relationship with her complicated father. In 2013, composer Jeanine Tesori (of "Caroline, or Change" fame) and author-lyricist Lisa Kron ("2-½ Miles") brought her graphic novel narrative to rich theatrical life Off-Broadway and eventually took their Obie Award musical to Broadway—where it won well deserved 2015 Tony Awards for the show as well as its collaborators. Now Huntington Theatre is doing full justice to Bechdel's insightful memoir and this very thoughtful show in a fresh and forceful staging by Logan Ellis.
Undaunted by the musical's challenging division of the focal memoirist into three roles—namely Small Alison, Medium Alison and (fully grown up) Alison, Ellis artfully moves the narrating adult Alison in and around the ample Huntington stage so that her on-going presence never seems distracting. In fact, as the show begins with the cartoon artist's work desk at center stage, Alison—played with convincing candor and warmth by Sarah Bockel—immediately establishes this distinctive work as a musical memoir that chronicles both her happy and dark days. Bockel's remarkable performance includes strong attention to the very different experiences of Small Alison and Medium Alison. While the musical finale bears the striking title "Flying Away," early on Alison recalls the childhood fun of having her father Bruce lift and balance her on his feet as if on an airplane.
Throughout the no-intermission musical (100 minutes in length), narrator Alison makes a rivetingly earnest effort to understand her father as well as herself. On the one hand, Bruce is a multi-talent—a high school English teacher, a restorer of furniture and a funeral home director—the last the source of the musical's seemingly quirky title. At the same time, her closeted father attempts to deal with a disturbing need to meet up with various young men—including a yard worker named Roy—with regular therapy. As a college student at Oberlin, Medium Alison finally comes to the realization that she is a lesbian—one who will both continue to love her father and confront his identity crisis. Although Alison reveals at an early moment that her father has committed suicide, the power of Lisa Kron's book and the poignancy of the Kron — Tesori score should make audience members feel as though they are joining Alison in her difficult but rewarding search for individual and family truths.
Under Logan Ellis' sharp direction, a first-rate cast makes "Fun Home" as moving in its own way as the original production that this critic saw at New York's Circle in the Square in 2015. Nick Duckart captures Bruce's conflicted emotions and motivations with arresting pathos—much as Michael Cerveris did in his brilliant Tony Award performance. In addition to Bockel's touching work as Alison, Lyla Randall as Small Alison and Maya Jacobson as Medium Alison are equally persuasive. Budding talent Randall may have theatergoers on the verge of tears during her standout delivery of a vivid number entitled "Ring of Keys"—in which she fondly remembers a butch delivery woman. Jacobson brings compelling naivete to Medium Alison as she opens herself up to an adventurous relationship with a very personable fellow student named Joan—played with winning directness by Sushma Saha.
In what is arguably the musical's finest number "Days and Days," Jennifer Ellis deeply explores the frustrations of Bruce's understandably needy wife Helen. Wyatt Anton provides distinct characterizations as Roy and the other men that Bruce encounters. Hearty praise goes to Taavon Gamble for properly high energy and wide-ranging choreography, Jessie Rosso for spirited musical direction and Tanya Orellana for a bold scenic design in which Bruce's library bookcase virtually reaches the Huntington's rafters.
Fun Home proved to be a breakthrough study of family dynamics and individual orientation in 2015. Huntington's heartfelt staging brings welcome resonance to Alison Bechdel's singular memoir and the musical's enduring impact.