Displaying items by tag: Stephen Shellhardt
Review: Porchlight Music Theatre's 'Fun Home' at Ruth Page Center for the Arts
Before Alison Bechdel became famously associated with her “Bechdel Test” for evaluating fiction by how women are portrayed, she published the now classic graphic novel ‘Fun Home’. Through meticulously created panels, Bechdel explores her splintered relationship with her father who died shortly after she came out to him.
Renowned composer Jeanine Tesori collaborated with Lisa Kron to adapt Bechdel’s graphic novel into a stage musical. Following significant rewrites, the 2013 off-Broadway production transferred to Broadway in 2015. The production went on to garner several Tony nominations as well as a nomination for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize.
Porchlight Music Theatre brings ‘Fun Home’ back to Chicago in an all-new revival directed by Stephen Shellhardt. There’s a freshness to this production that strives less for technical perfection but instead for a full-throated sense of emotion. Alanna Chavez leads the cast as the full-grown narrator Allison reflecting back on her childhood, While Patrick Byrnes plays her father Bruce with whom she has a complex relationship. In a series of non-linear memories and heartbreaking songs, ‘Fun Home’ combs through Bechdel’s memories for explanations for her father’s apparent suicide.
This revival isn’t trying to be the Broadway tour and it’s all the better for it. As evidenced by the part of Allison’s mother originated by Judy Kuhn played here by Neala Barron with a wildly different take. Gone is the passive mid-century housewife this part is typically played as. Barron takes Helen in a darker direction that perhaps more accurately captures the suppressed rage flowing through Tesori’s music.
In many ways, ‘Fun Home’ is a story about how emotional abuse as a child impacts the adults we become. Shellhardt’s interpretation doesn’t gloss over the more unsettling details of Bechdel’s relationship with her father. Byrnes gives a cool, but certainly not reserved performance that thrillingly straddles the line between scary and vulnerable.
Small but cleverly dressed staging helps the beautiful harmonies soar. One thing Porchlight can always be counted on for is the music. Even the arrangements seem slightly reinterpreted for this production. As the 100-minute show narrows its focus onto the exact moment Bechdel’s father’s life reached a crisis point, Tesori and Kron’s score goes for the jugular in duets like ‘Telephone Wire’ between Barron and Byrnes.
Though ‘Fun Home’ deals with heavy issues around suicide, closeted homosexuality and dysfunctional family relationships, it’s also a story of queer celebration. Bechdel’s father may not have been comfortable with who he really was, but Bechdel’s life and success is a living testament to shifting generational mores. Thanks to a more tolerant world, Allison Bechdel was able to live her life in a way her father never could.
‘Fun Home’ continues to shine as one of Broadway’s most original queer musicals, specifically because of its female protagonist. The sumptuous music by Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron brings out the bittersweetness of Bechdel’s graphic novel. Porchlight’s version feels as relevant today as ever and in the hands of this well-curated cast, ‘Fun Home’ soars off the stage.
Through March 2 at Porchlight Music Theatre at Ruth Page Center for the Arts. 1016 N Dearborn. (773) 777-9884
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