"Fun Home" by Theater Latte Da at the Ritz Theater

The long-awaited #TCTheater premiere of the 2015 Tony winning best musical Fun Home is finally happening! I was lucky enough to see this brilliant and moving musical on Broadway and have loved it ever since, even driving to Duluth for the Minnesota premiere by an intrepid theater company known as Renegade in 2019. I'm thrilled to finally see a production in the Twin Cities, and no one better to do it than Theater Latte Da. The smartly and succinctly written 90-minute musical is perfectly cast, perfectly staged, and perfectly designed, for an emotionally satisfying and epic journey through one person's story of coming of age, coming out, and coming to terms with her parents' flaws and humanity; a specific story that feels so real and relatable. Apparently I am not alone in this opinion; some performances are already selling out and they've extended it a week. Don't wait - get your tickets now to see this modern musical theater masterpiece (through April 11 at the Ritz Theater in Northeast Minneapolis).

"Fun Home" at Renegade Theater Company

The 2015 Tony winner* for best musical, Fun Home, has been available for regional productions for a few years, and I've been anxiously waiting to see which of our many amazing regional theaters in Minnesota would be the first to produce it. I never guessed it would be Renegade Theater Company in Duluth. But I should have, this intrepid company in Minnesota's favorite vacation spot is the perfect fit with their intimate performance space, interesting and risky choices, and the surprisingly deep music-theater talent pool in Duluth. Whether or not #TCTheater companies are prevented from getting the rights to Fun Home because Renegade is doing it, I don't know. I only know that, according to Artistic Director Mary Fox in the post-show talk back, Renegade has been interested in doing this piece since they heard about it, so they asked, and were granted the rights. And I'm so glad they did, and I'm so grateful I was able to drive up to Duluth to see it on their sold-out closing weekend, because Renegade has beautifully brought to life this new, modern, funny, moving, gorgeous musical in a powerful and intimate way.

"Fun Home" Broadway Tour at the Orpheum Theatre

The 2015 Tony winner for best musical, Fun Home, is on tour and is stopping at Minneapolis' Orpheum Theatre this week. I was lucky enough to see this funny and heart-wrenching modern musical on Broadway last fall with most of the original cast intact. And now we here in the Twin Cities are lucky to see it with a fantastic new cast (including Kate Shindle, Abby Corrigan, and Alessandra Baldacchino as the Alisons large to small, and Robert Petkoff and Susan Moniz as the parents) and a slightly modified set design and direction (it played in a much smaller in the round house on Broadway and has been adapted to fit a large proscenium theater like the Orpheum). If you're a fan of music-theater, I highly recommend you head to Minneapolis this cold and snowy weekend to see what the future of the art form looks like: an intimate, real, raw story about life, death, love, and loss told with a small cast and a smart and beautiful score. You can read all my thoughts about the musical here, and keep reading below for a conversation with my fellow bloggers Laura at Twin Cities Stages and Jules and Carol at Minnesota Theater Love.

"Fun Home" at Circle in the Square on Broadway

The new original musical Fun Home made history this year as the first musical created by a team of women (music by Jeanine Tesori, book and lyrics by Lisa Kron) to win the Tony. It's about time, right? But that's not a reason to go see it. Well, it's not the only reason. The reason to see Fun Home is that it's a tragic and funny true story beautifully told through music and cleverly constructed as a memory play, with multiple timepoints intermingling to create a whole and complete picture of a life. That life is Alison Bechdel, cartoonist and author, upon whose autobiographical graphic novel the musical is based. This story that is part coming of age, part family drama, part self-discovery, part coming to terms with the past, feels so real, raw, and intimate. The day after seeing Hamilton and thinking "look what we can do" at the grand scale of it all, Fun Home made me think "look what we can do" on the other end of the spectrum. That is, tell a small, intimate, specific yet universal story through music and theater.

As the story unfolds, we watch a present-day Alison writing her novel, a memoir of her life. Her memories come alive in front of her as she observes, comments, and sometimes interacts with them. She sees her child self, growing up in a seemingly happy family in the '70s with an actress mother and a teacher/funeral home director father. But something is off that young Alison can't quite grasp, and current Alison struggles to understand as she writes her book. Alison also sees her college age self realizing she's gay and coming out to her parents, only to find out that her father, too, is gay, living in the closet and causing complications and heartaches for his family (and himself) through all of the secrets and lies. This is not a happy-go-lucky kind of musical, but one that has moments of humor and moments of grief, sometimes inseparable, like life.

Watching this musical is almost like reading the graphic novel upon which it is based (which I just ordered), as present-day Alison paints a picture of her life for the audience - all the good, bad, and ugly of growing up in a loving yet complicated family. As they say, the more specific something is, the more universal it is. And this story, which is specifically Alison's, is universal in its themes of belonging, growing up, trying to figure out who you are, changing relationships with parents, and remembering the past and accepting it while not letting it define you. In the latter point Fun Home reminds me one of Jeanine Tesori's other musicals, Violet (one of my favorites) - an intimate and personal story of a woman coming to terms with her past and her complicated relationship with her father, told beautifully and poignantly with a small cast and orchestra.

the cast of Fun Home

Six or so months after opening, the original cast is mostly intact, except that the child understudy Gabriella Pizzolo (one of those kids that was born for the stage) has taken over as young Alison. She fits right in with this wonderfully cohesive cast that brings this story to life in such a very real way, especially the three actors playing Alison at various ages - Beth Malone, Emily Skeggs, and Gabriella, like three phases of a single life experience. Playing Alison's father earned Michael Cerveris won a Tony Award, and it's obvious why he won for his performance of this complicated and conflicted man as he alternately infuriates and engenders empathy. The rest of the nine-person cast are all wonderful in their roles, adult and child alike.

The in-the-round staging of Circle in the Square is perfect for this show as the scenes transition quickly and seamlessly across distance and decades, set pieces gracefully sliding on and off stage or disappearing into the floor. Director Sam Gold utilizes the space well. The one-level arena-like seating means that even if you're sitting in the back row, as I was, you feel like you're watching this story from within. As a band geek, I enjoyed watching the wonderful six-person on-stage band (with the percussionist seemingly backstage somewhere), under the direction of Chris Fenwick. And any child of the '70s will recognize and love/hate the bellbottoms and turtleneck sweaters (scenic and costume design by David Zinn).

The best theater is that which comes from a place of truth, and this story is painfully, beautifully true. Thank you Alison for sharing your story with us, and Jeanine and Lisa for bringing it to life in the way that speaks most clearly to me - musical theater. (Order tickets here, or get them at the TKTS booth like I did.)


Read more of my Broadway reviews here.