Porchlight Music Theatre is proud to announce Fun Home: Behind the Show Backstory with Artistic Director Michael Weber, Tuesday, Dec. 10 at 7 p.m. at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn St. Weber hosts this multimedia presentation about the Tony-award winning and Pulitzer Prize-nominated musical Fun Home and includes the history of Fun Home, insights into the production, fun facts and guest performances from cast members Neala Barron, Z Mowry and Tessa Pundsack. Tickets are pay-what-you-can with a suggested donation of $25 and reservations may be made at PorchlightMusicTheatre.org.
Winner of seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical and a Pulitzer finalist, Fun Home is a refreshingly honest, emotional and revolutionary musical. Based on Alison Bechdel’s critically acclaimed graphic novel with a score from Jeanine Tesori, Fun Home shares how Bechdel unlocks memories, milestones and mysteries of her youth as she begins to write her first graphic novel. With a compassionate score and a brilliant script, Fun Home tells the story of seeing your parents through grown-up eyes.
ABOUT PORCHLIGHT’S FUN HOME
January 16 - March 2, 2025
Music by Jeanine Tesori
Book and lyrics by Lisa Kron
Based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel
Directed by Stephen Schellhardt
Music Directed by Heidi Joosten
Previews: Thursday, Jan. 16 - Friday, Jan. 17 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, Jan. 18 at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Performance Schedule: Thursdays - Fridays at 7:30 p.m.. Saturdays at 3 and 7 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. with additional performances Thursday, Jan. 23 at 2 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 30 at 2 p.m., Wednesday, Feb 5 at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Feb 12 at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Feb 19 at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Feb 26 at 7:30 p.m.
Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn St.
Tickets: $20 - $85
CONTENT ADVISORY: verbal abuse, depictions of homophobia and a death by suicide as well as allusions to sexual contact between an adult and teenagers.
ABOUT PORCHLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE
Porchlight Music Theatre, entering its 30th season, is the award-winning center for music theatre in Chicago. Through live performance, youth education and community outreach, we impact thousands of lives each season, bringing the magic of musicals to our theatre home at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts in the Gold Coast and to neighborhoods across the city. Porchlight has built a national reputation for boldly reimagining classic musicals, supporting new works and young performers, and showcasing Chicago’s most notable music theatre artists, all through the intimate and powerful theatrical lens of the “Chicago Style.”
Porchlight's history over nearly three decades includes more than 70 mainstage works with 15 Chicago premieres and five world premieres.
Porchlight's education and outreach programs serve schools, youth of all ages and skill levels and community organizations. Porchlight annually awards dozens of full scholarships and hundreds of free tickets to ensure accessibility and real engagement with this uniquely American art form.
The company’s many honors include 178 Joseph Jefferson Award (Jeff) nominations and 50 Jeff awards, as well as 44 Black Theatre Alliance (BTA) nominations and 15 BTA awards. In 2019, Porchlight graduated to the Large Theatre tier of the Equity Jeff Awards and has been honored with seven awards in this tier to date including Best Ensemble for Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies (2019) and Best Production-Revue for Blues in the Night (2022).
Through the global pandemic, Porchlight emerged as one of Chicago’s leaders in virtual programming, quickly launching a host of free offerings like Sondheim @ 90 Roundtables, Movie Musical Mondays, Porchlight by Request: Command Performances and WPMT: Classic Musicals from the Golden Age of Radio. In 2021, Porchlight launched its annual summer series, Broadway in your Backyard, performing at parks and venues throughout the city.
