‘Fun Home’ Review: A Moving Must-See For and About Family

Bathed in a warm spotlight, a little girl experiences a moment of pure joy playing “airplane” with her father, balanced carefully upon his outstretched legs and spreading her arms out wide. With a bright smile on her face, she exclaims, “Like Superman!”

So opens “Fun Home,” a musical for all ages directed by Logan Ellis that played at The Huntington through early December. Based on the award-winning graphic memoir by cartoonist Alison Bechdel, “Fun Home” tells the story of Bechdel’s relationship with her father. The musical does not stray much from the memoir, following the same storyline. An older version of Bechdel reflects on her own journey of self-discovery leading up to her coming out as a lesbian in her college years.

Alongside this, the audience becomes privy to hidden elements of Bechdel’s childhood, including her father’s own closeted queerness. Onstage in real time, Small Alison (Lyla Randall) observes her father’s internalized homophobia, while Medium Alison (Maya Jacobson) learns about her father’s queer identity, and Alison (Sarah Bockel) comes to terms with her memories, decades after her father’s suicide.

Moving, emotionally complex, and often strikingly funny, “Fun Home” places the awkwardness of growing up and exploring a queer identity alongside the more sombering realities of closeted individuals and their families. On a stage, this layered and intensely personal story is hard to get right — especially with the dramatic emotional shifts between some scenes. The Huntington offered audiences an expertly handled delivery of such a story, with perfect casting and unique direction that worked in tandem with the script to elevate its themes.

The Huntington production garnered few critiques, but there were some technical issues that stood out. At times when the music was louder — especially full-cast numbers where the live band was in full swing — the sound mixing happened too slowly for volume changes, often muffling lyrics.

Occasionally, the pacing felt slightly rushed. The emotional impact of more subtle details was less effective in a handful of minor scenes because of the pacing. For example, during an interaction between Small Alison and her father, Bruce Bechdel (Nick Duckart) tries to convince her to wear a dress. When she comments he is wearing pink — a “girl color” — he raises his hand to slap her. Director Ellis made this happen very quickly. Bruce’s hand raises and, almost immediately, he is down on one knee attempting to convince her verbally. It’s a blink-and-you-miss-it moment that could have been helped by a beat of pause where Bruce realizes his error — a breath of quick self-reflection before the scene closes.

That being said, most of the production was executed flawlessly and with great care. The costuming by designer Celeste Jennings, for example, was intentional and historically accurate, curating a sense of nostalgia that paired nicely with themes of memory and reflection. In an early number, “Welcome to Our House on Maple Avenue,”about the emphasis on perfectionism in the Bechdel household enforced by Alison’s father, Bruce and Helen Bechdel were dressed in pink and blue respectively. This highlighted the highly heteronormative gender roles they inhabit, lining up with the contrast between appearance and reality that the song sets up.

Randall as Small Alison gave an outstanding performance, shining brightly among a cast of talented actors. With energy and authenticity, Randall’s vibrant portrayal of the young cartoonist tied together the different versions of Alison in the minds of audience members by conveying a strong and unique personality.

Lighting design, by Philip Rosenberg, was undoubtedly one of the production’s strongest elements. During scenes where Alison recalls memories from her childhood and adolescence, the stage is flooded with warm light, something that contrasted greatly with more emotionally evocative and intense scenes, where the light turned cold and clinical. This helped smooth the transition between comedic and intense scenes, while simultaneously allowing for the emotional significance of the scene to bleed through.

Blocking was another highlight of the performance. Ellis made the bold but masterful decision to have older Alison follow around her younger versions in certain scenes. Watching older Alison’s expressions foreshadowed dramatic moments and emphasized Alison’s process of self-reflection. Subtle decisions like having older Alison and Small Alison’s heads turn at the same time show the overlap and interplay between these different versions of one person, as they slowly come together and their storylines intersect on the point of identity.

The Huntington production of “Fun Home” elegantly portrayed Alison Bechdel’s timeless story of family and self-discovery. The thematic complexity was not lost in translation from the memoir to the stage, retaining the emotional impact of the memories that inspired this musical.

“Fun Home” ran at The Huntington from Nov. 14 to Dec. 14.