(Marissa Simeqi, Amy Jo Jackson, & Ellie van Amerongen in Speakeasy’s ‘Fun Home’/Photo Nile Scott Studios)
by Mike Hoban
‘Fun Home’ Music by Jeanine Tesori; Book & Lyrics by Lisa Kron; Based on the Graphic Novel by Alison Bechdel; Directed By Paul Daigneault; Music Direction by Matthew Stern; Choreography by Sarah Crane; Scenic Design by Cristina Todesco; Costume Design by Charles Schoonmaker; Lighting Design by Karen Perlow; Sound Design by Andrew Duncan Will. Presented by the SpeakEasy Stage Company at the Roberts Studio Theatre, Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont St. Boston through June 30
Fun Home is not your typical musical. In fact, it, based on its tragicomic nature and lack of any show-stopping musical numbers, it might more accurately be called a play with music. But this Tony Award-winning coming out/coming of age adaptation of Alison Bechdel’s 2006 graphic novel memoir is still a pretty gratifying work, due to its compelling storyline and effective performances by the cast.
Set in the mid-70’s, when coming out was a significantly bigger deal than today, Fun Home tells the story of the Bechdel family as seen through the eyes of 43 year-old Alison (Amy Jo Jackson). The title refers to the nickname the kids have given the family’s funeral home business, where dad (Todd Yard) moonlights from his day job as a high school English teacher. But the painstakingly restored Victorian mansion where the family actually lives on nearby Maple Avenue is anything but a fun home, as we soon learn.
(Simeqi, Todd Yard /Photo Nile Scott Studios)
The story is broken into three time periods from Alison’s life, as seen by 8-year old Alison (IRNE winner Marissa Simeqi); 19 year-old Alison (Ellie Van Amerongen) and the Alison of the present, who serves as narrator. Early on she gives us a succinct summation of the play, in the form of captions from her graphic novel:
Caption: 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
But it’s the details of her weird upbringing that gives Fun Home its depth and humor. In the beginning, life seems normal enough, despite the odd family business (sent up hilariously by the children when they sing their own mock TV commercial in the song, “Come to the Fun Home”). Mom Helen (Laura Marie Duncan) is a teacher and performs in local musical theater productions, much to Dad’s delight, and when he isn’t teaching or at the funeral parlor, he’s collecting junk in search of ‘Antique Roadshow” treasure. But it soon becomes apparent that this is not exactly an episode of The Partridge Family when Dad hires hunky teen Roy as handyman/babysitter for the family and seduces him as Mom plays the piano in the other room.
(Simeqi, Luke Gold, and Cameron Levesque/Photo Nile Scott Studios)
Dad’s creepy coming out (to the audience) stands in stark contrast to Alison’s relatively painless transition, where a brief meeting outside the college’s Gay Union blossoms into a blissful love affair with Joan (an assured Desire Graham) – which she celebrates in song with the ebullient “Changing My Major”. The portrait of Dad is less than that of as a closeted gay man trapped in a straight marriage than that of a sexual predator, as in addition to Roy, he also seduces a high school junior with beer – for which he is arrested. The arrest ratchets up the self-loathing for Dad, which results in torrents of vicious verbal abuse for the family, especially his poor wife, whom he constantly refers to as “bitch”. She does, however, get rewarded with the production’s most powerful song, and Duncan does a nice job with the gut-wrenching “Days and Days” with its telling lyric, “chaos never happens if it’s never seen”.
There are a lot of laughs in Fun Home, but there’s a palpable level of despair, which serves to elevate Fun Home into the realm of good theater over great musical, given its fairly pedestrian score. There are also some good performances, particularly by Yard, who excels at playing unlikable if not outright loathsome characters (Burr in Moonbox’s Wild Party and Jigger Craigin in Reagle’s Carousel come to mind), and Marissa Simeqi is again a delight as young Alison. The onstage orchestra is superb as well, as is Cristina Todesco’s detailed set design. At 100 minutes (no intermission) Fun Home is a good take. For tix and information, go to: http://www.speakeasystage.com/
