Darkness and light in Huntington’s ‘Fun Home’

By Rich Fahey

BOSTON – For many years, the theater world has known that the source material for a great musical could come from just about anywhere.  It didn’t have to be a book, a film, a new and original idea, or the adaptation of an existing play. It could even be a collection of songs from a great artist.

Or, in at least one case, a best-selling graphic novel by a self-described “lesbian cartoonist.” In The Huntington’s production of “Fun Home,” Alison Bechdel’s memoir is brought to vivid life by a superb cast, with equally strong direction and The Huntington’s signature production values.

Along the way, Alison – played by three actors at different points in her life – will celebrate her sexuality, tell a story and try to come to grips with her relationship with her long-closeted gay father. amid their own personal struggles and the overall dynamics of familial relationships.

“Fun Home” made history on many fronts at the 2015 Tony Awards, where it was nominated in 12 categories, winning five, including Best Musical. A lesbian was the central character in a Tony Award-winning musical for the first time, an all-woman design team got it done, and the all-female songwriting team (Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron) were the first to win a Tony for Best Original Score.

The adult 43-year-old Alison (Sarah Bockel) is a presence throughout, hovering over her cramped desk in the room where she is creating her graphic novel. She is frustrated — there are rewrites and discards as she begins to look back, sketching her memories as they play out on stage and musing about possible captions.

“Fun Home” alternates between light and darkness. We learn early on from the adult Alison that her long-closeted gay father Bruce Bechdel (a wonderful Nick Duckart) will commit suicide, a death she is still grappling with years later.

Mother Helen (Jennifer Ellis) is a lost soul trapped in A façade of a marriage, giving up her career for her family and husband and she is wrapped in regrets.

But there are also moments of lighthearted, joyous fun, especially when the 19-year-old Medium Alison (Maya Jacobson) fairly leaps out of the closet as a freshman at Oberlin College, a passionate encounter that has her singing “I’m changing my major to Joan,” her lover played by Sushma Saha. Alison comes out to her family and hopes someday her father will have the courage to do the same.

The so-called “Fun Home” on Maple Avenue in a small Pennsylvania town is an older historic home painstakingly restored by Bruce Bechdel, who casts a long shadow. He is an acclaimed English teacher, a skilled renovator of historic homes, and a funeral home director in his spare time.

He  presents a portrait to the world of someone he’d like to be but inside is beset by the reality that he is a gay man who has spent decades in the closet and is afraid to come out. He employs a comely handyman (Wyatt Anton) and has been known to pick up former male students on a whim.

But it is also a place where the imagination of the Bechdel children – eight-year-old Small Alison (Lyla Randall),  and brothers Christian Bechdel (Odin Vega) and John Bechdel (Caleb Levin) – can run wild, cavorting in caskets, or imagining a commercial for the funeral home in “Welcome to the Fun Home,” with some fine choreography by Taavon Gamble.

 Randall’s Small Allison shines in “Ring of Keys,” about a woman whom she finds strangely appealing, foretelling what is to come.

Ellis has been responsible for many transcendent musical moments on area stages in the past couple of decades, including The Huntington, where she sang Sondheim’s heartbreaking “Not a Day Goes By” in The Huntington’s 2017 production of “Merrily We Roll Along.” As Helen Bechdel, she performs the achingly beautiful and equally heartbreaking number “Days and Days,” recalling moments years ago when she was “swept off her feet.”

There is a heart-rending scene when, shortly before his death and after Alison has learned her father’s secret, Bruce seemingly wants, during a drive, to come clean to her about his life but, other than a few oblique statements, never really does.

Director Logan Ellis has guided his cast in delivering pitch-perfect performances throughout.

The excellent orchestra led by Jessie Rosso can be seen performing in a cut-out area above the stage. I incorrectly stated in an earlier version of this post that The Huntington Theatre has no orchestra pit. Gabrielle Jacques of The Huntington said the theater has one and it’s fully accessible since the recent renovations. It was a design choice to have the orchestra visible during the show for this production.

One aspect of The Huntington experience that shouldn’t go unnoticed and unappreciated is the full-scale printed program, complete with excellent dramaturgy, at a time when most programs have drifted online

The creative process involved in “Fun Home” included staged readings, workshops, and an acclaimed off-Broadway run before Broadway. The music by Tesori and the book and lyrics by Kron evolved over many rewrites and drafts before finally overcoming the difficulty of translating a series of drawings and captions into musical theater scenes.

The Huntington has given the work an exquisite re-telling most worthy of your attention.

The Huntington production of “Fun Home.” Music by Jeanine Tesori. Book and lyrics by Lisa Kron, based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel. At The Huntington Theatre through Dec. 14. Huntingtontheatre.org.