A Review of the Play, Fun Home, at the Baltimore Center Stage

On Sunday, January 18, 2019 I saw the musical play Fun Home based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel and directed by Hana S. Sharif. It chronicled Bechdel’s family life as a child and then as a college student with parts narrated by Andrea Prestinario as the adult/cartoonist Alison.

The story and Alison’s emotional journey unfold between the Bechdel house and family owned funeral home in Beech Creek, Pennsylvania, Oberlin College in Ohio and her contemporary studio space. Alison takes the audience across time when she was a child in awe of her father, to when she had her first lesbian experience in college to recent times at her studio.

The audience got to see her father, Bruce Bechdel (played by Jeffry Denman) as the perfectionist that he was and how he struggled with his sexuality. It also showed her mother, Helen Bechdel, (played by Michelle Dawson) and how she struggled and coped by drinking. And in the midst of it all, how Alison as a college student (played by Laura Darrell) came to the realization that she was a lesbian and that her father needed to get out of the closet.

Excellent performances all the way around. The singing and occasional dancing were spot on. The music definitely drove the drama of this emotional roller coaster of “coming ou.” Two thumbs up!

Here’s the synopsis from www.centerstage.org

This play was A COMING-OUT MUSICAL

Welcome to the Bechdel family. But just what family is it? Through the searching eyes of daughter Alison—aged 9, 19, and then 43—we meet her ever-shifting and sometimes unreliable memories of brothers, mother, and above all her repressed father, along with recollections from the family funeral home to Alison’s coming out. Based on Bechdel’s own best-selling illustrated memoir, this poignant tale harnesses every facet of music and theater to explore and unravel the mysteries of childhood and the surprising secrets that shape a life. Winner of the 2015 Tony Award for Best Musical, from the composer of Caroline, or Change and the writer of 2.5 Minute Ride.

Check out the trailer:

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