Photo by Joan Marcus
All good things come to an end and sadly that is also true for the 2015 Tony Award-winning Best Musical Fun Home. As it enters its final week at Circle in the Square, Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron's beautifully sculpted and touching tale, based on Alison Bechdel's 2006 graphic memoir, is our #ShowOfTheWeek!
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 how did this modestly small show end up capturing so many hearts during its tenure so 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 (currently played by Emily Skeggs 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.
Click HERE to read our interview with Tony winner Michael Cerveris about the final performances of Fun Home on Broadway.
If you haven't seen this musical masterpiece yet, this is your last chance to see it at its cosy Broadway home before Fun Home embarks on a National Tour next month.
Click here for tickets to Fun Home for performances through to 10 September 2016 at Broadway's Circle in the Square.
Michael Cerveris in Fun Home More Production PhotosOriginally published on