THEATER
‘Fun Home’ elicits laughs, sighs of recognition Alison Bechdel memoir comes to life on stage
By PATRICK FOLLIARD great aplomb. As the story unfolds in an order of its own, Alison remains onstage obWith its nod to domestic turmoil and the pangs of youth, “Fun Home” is the kind of serving her parents, her selves, her agreeable brothers (Teddy Schechter, August Scott tragicomic show that elicits both laughs and sighs of recognition, especially if you’re queer. Initially a 2006 bestselling graphic memoir by lesbian cartoonist Alison Bechdel, pealing actor who assays two objects of “Fun Home” was successfully adapted for stage by Jeanine Tesori (music) and Lisa young handyman, and guileless Mark, a Kron (book and lyrics) and went on to win high school junior. the 2015 Tony Award for Best Adapted Sometimes the stage gets a little Musical and a place in theater history as crowded, but it works. lesbian main character. It’s now playing at band secreted behind an upstage scrim, Studio Theatre. Tesori and Kron’s varied score, rife with When we meet 43-year-old Alison (out revelation and zing, moves Bechdel’s actor Andrea Prestinario), she’s a together story along while giving the players their graphic artist poised to take a deep dive moment to shine. into the past. With the help of her girlAt a local diner with her father, dresshood diary and several decades worth of averse Small Alison stops dead in her sketches, the lesbian protagonist looks back on her unorthodox childhood in Butch” pushing a cart of packages. In small town Pennsylvania and some seminal years at Oberlin College in scenes sings effectively with awe and approval: acted by Alison’s younger selves, nine“Your swagger and your bearing/And year-old Small Alison and college age the just right clothes you’re wearing/Your Medium Alison (Quinn Titcomb and Maya short hair and your dungarees.” Jacobson, respectively). As a freshman at Oberlin, Jacobson’s Coming out and relationships are key, Medium Alison is awkwardly gay curibut Alison’s investigation centers on what ‘Fun Home’ with ADANTE CARTER, ANDREA PRESTINARIO, REBECCA PITCHER, BOBBY SMITH ous and a little rudderless, but once she made her closeted gay father Bruce tick (Photo by Teresa Castracane) and ultimately self-destruct. Brant), a progressive out coed, she gains a new laser like focus on identity and out actor Bobby Smith, Bruce is a manic Through August 20 goals. She hilariously sings, “I’m changing amalgam of charm, nerves, and asperity Studio Theatre | 1501 14th St., N.W. | $75-$125 | Studiotheatre.org my major to sex with Joan/With a minor who eventually ends his tortured exisin kissing Joan.” tence by stepping into the path of an onWith a gorgeous operatic soprano, coming truck. Pitcher sings “Days and Days,” a revelation of family secrets and a warning from mother But while alive, he never sits still. Whether restoring houses, teaching English, or runto daughter not to waste her life. Near show’s end, Smith and Prestinario as gay father ning the family business, a funeral home affectionately called Fun Home by the family, and daughter explore similarities with “Telephone Wire,” and Bruce dramatically delivers his soul-baring solo “Edges of the World.” er) and three young children in a never-ending rota of work. On a lighter note, the score playfully includes songs reminiscent of music from AliAnd when he’s not embalming deceased townsfolk, polishing antiques, or reading son’s childhood — think Jackson 5 and those TV families Partridge and Brady. James Joyce, Bruce is hitting on young men, lots of them. Increasingly, his peccadillos Despite being the Bechdel’s own sad story, “Fun Home” rings universal and true. Stuare becoming the worst kept secret in town. dio’s lovingly done production delivers the message without hesitation. Studio’s artistic director David Muse helms this intimately staged production with
‘Fun Home’
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