‘Fun Home’ Evaluate: A Moving Should-See For and About Household | Arts

Bathed in a heat highlight, just a little lady experiences a second of pure pleasure enjoying “airplane” along with her father, balanced rigorously upon his outstretched legs and spreading her arms out broad. With a vivid smile on her face, she exclaims, “Like Superman!”

So opens “Fun Home,” a musical for all ages directed by Logan Ellis that performed at The Huntington by means of early December. Based on the award-winning graphic memoir by cartoonist Alison Bechdel, “Fun Home” tells the story of Bechdel’s relationship along with her father. The musical doesn’t stray a lot from the memoir, following the identical storyline. An older model of Bechdel displays on her personal journey of self-discovery main as much as her popping out as a lesbian in her school years.

Alongside this, the viewers turns into aware of hidden parts of Bechdel’s childhood, together with her father’s personal closeted queerness. Onstage in actual time, Small Alison (Lyla Randall) observes her father’s internalized homophobia, whereas Medium Alison (Maya Jacobson) learns about her father’s queer id, and Alison (Sarah Bockel) involves phrases along with her reminiscences, many years after her father’s suicide.

Moving, emotionally complicated, and infrequently strikingly humorous, “Fun Home” locations the awkwardness of rising up and exploring a queer id alongside the extra sombering realities of closeted people and their households. On a stage, this layered and intensely private story is difficult to get proper — particularly with the dramatic emotional shifts between some scenes. The Huntington provided audiences an expertly dealt with supply of such a narrative, with excellent casting and distinctive route that labored in tandem with the script to raise its themes.

The Huntington manufacturing garnered few critiques, however there have been some technical points that stood out. At instances when the music was louder — particularly full-cast numbers the place the reside band was in full swing — the sound mixing occurred too slowly for quantity modifications, usually muffling lyrics.

Occasionally, the pacing felt barely rushed. The emotional impression of extra refined particulars was much less efficient in a handful of minor scenes due to the pacing. For instance, throughout an interplay between Small Alison and her father, Bruce Bechdel (Nick Duckart) tries to persuade her to put on a gown. When she feedback he’s sporting pink — a “girl color” — he raises his hand to slap her. Director Ellis made this occur in a short time. Bruce’s hand raises and, virtually instantly, he’s down on one knee making an attempt to persuade her verbally. It’s a blink-and-you-miss-it second that would have been helped by a beat of pause the place Bruce realizes his error — a breath of fast self-reflection earlier than the scene closes.

That being mentioned, many of the manufacturing was executed flawlessly and with nice care. The costuming by designer Celeste Jennings, for instance, was intentional and traditionally correct, curating a way of nostalgia that paired properly with themes of reminiscence and reflection. In an early quantity, “Welcome to Our House on Maple Avenue,”concerning the emphasis on perfectionism within the Bechdel family enforced by Alison’s father, Bruce and Helen Bechdel had been wearing pink and blue respectively. This highlighted the extremely heteronormative gender roles they inhabit, lining up with the distinction between look and actuality that the track units up.

Randall as Small Alison gave an excellent efficiency, shining brightly amongst a solid of proficient actors. With power and authenticity, Randall’s vibrant portrayal of the younger cartoonist tied collectively the completely different variations of Alison within the minds of viewers members by conveying a powerful and distinctive character.

Lighting design, by Philip Rosenberg, was undoubtedly one of many manufacturing’s strongest parts. During scenes the place Alison remembers reminiscences from her childhood and adolescence, the stage is flooded with heat mild, one thing that contrasted tremendously with extra emotionally evocative and intense scenes, the place the sunshine turned chilly and medical. This helped clean the transition between comedic and intense scenes, whereas concurrently permitting for the emotional significance of the scene to bleed by means of.

Blocking was one other spotlight of the efficiency. Ellis made the daring however masterful determination to have older Alison observe round her youthful variations in sure scenes. Watching older Alison’s expressions foreshadowed dramatic moments and emphasised Alison’s technique of self-reflection. Subtle choices like having older Alison and Small Alison’s heads flip on the similar time present the overlap and interaction between these completely different variations of 1 individual, as they slowly come collectively and their storylines intersect on the purpose of id.

The Huntington manufacturing of “Fun Home” elegantly portrayed Alison Bechdel’s timeless story of household and self-discovery. The thematic complexity was not misplaced in translation from the memoir to the stage, retaining the emotional impression of the reminiscences that impressed this musical.

“Fun Home” ran at The Huntington from Nov. 14 to Dec. 14.