Photo by Joan Marcus
As we edge closer and closer to this year's Tony Awards and there is one clear favourite to win that coveted Tony for Best Musical (I'll give you three guesses...), it's about time we showered a little praise once again over last year's winner. Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron's beautifully sculpted and touching tale that goes by the name of Fun Home is our #ShowOfTheWeek!
Tony nominee Rebecca Luker joins the cast from 5 April, assuming the role of Helen Bechdel from fellow Tony nominee Judy Kuhn, whilst she undergoes hip surgery. I wish Ms. Kuhn a speedy recovery and hope she can make it back to the Circle in the Square post-haste, but I am also confident she has left her cherished role in very capable hands.
Based on the graphic memoir of the same name by Alison Bechdel, the musical adaptation of Fun Home (which began life off-Broadway at the Public Theater in 2013) picked up an impressive total of 12 Tony nominations last year, ultimately taking home 5 of them. It snapped up the awards for Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical (Lisa Kron), Best Original Score (Jeanine Tesori & Lisa Kron), Best Leading Actor in a Musical (Michael Cerveris) and Best Direction of a Musical (Sam Gold). So what is it that makes this modestly small show so massive on Broadway?
Firstly I simply adore the intimate Circle in the Square venue. Sam Gold's staging of the musical in the round is ingeniously engineered with pieces of set being raised from beneath the trapdoors. What probably was a mammoth task of technical design works so effortlessly during the performances. The size of the venue also caters for top quality Broadway shows with an intimacy you won't find in the larger Broadway houses. And make no mistake about it, this is a top quality production. The performances from children and adults alike set you off on a rollercoaster of emotions through joy and pain. The function of the older Alison (a sublime Beth Malone) as a Narrator with her two younger selves (Lauren Patten as "Middle Alison" and Gabriella Pizzolo as "Small Alison") works perfectly for the theatre and we are led reassuringly back and forth within the timeline of her past. Michael Cerveris gives a powerful and intriguing performance as the closeted patriarch of the family Bruce Bechdel and Alison's coming of age epiphanies are portrayed so delicately and beautifully with musical numbers such as "Ring of Keys" and "Changing My Major." What a delightful score from Tesori and Kron - it just makes me want to "Come to the Fun Home" over and over again.
If you haven't seen this musical masterpiece yet, where have you been?!
Click here for tickets to Fun Home for performances through to 9 October 2016 at Broadway's Circle in the Square.
Judy Kuhn (Helen), Oscar Williams (Christian), Zell Steele Morrow (John), Sydney Lucas (Alison) & Michael Cerveris (Bruce Bechdel) in Fun Home More production photosOriginally published on