The cast of
“Fun Home” at Mad Cow Theatre draws you in, making you empathize with their struggles while still seeming real, writes critic Matthew J. Palm.
When the musical “Fun Home” opened on Broadway in 2013, most critics swooned — to the tune of five Tony awards, including best musical. I was less impressed. Despite the intimate theater-in-theround staging, I felt disconnected from this story of a highly unusual family. I couldn’t get past a nagging staginess; it was always obvious to me the performers were acting.
But Mad Cow Theatre’s compelling production has made a believer of me. As directed by Mark Edward Smith, these characters draw you in, make you empathize with their struggles, and most important, they seem real.
Mad Cow has thankfully confined the artificiality to Rob Wolin’s striking scenic design. Blank cartoon panels slide back and forth across the stage, just waiting for artist Alison Bechdel to fill them in with her memories. In a brilliantly modulated performance, Sonia Roman conveys the importance of recovering those memories — she is determined to find clues that shed light on her father’s suicide.
“Fun Home” is based on the real story of Bechdel, a Vermont-based cartoonist and author. The musical, by Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori, echoes with the plaintive question she asks of her dad at the top of the show: “Am I like you?” The two are similar in one important way: Both are gay. Bechdel’s father, Bruce, lived a mostly closeted life — except occasional indiscretions — while her mother tried to maintain normalcy.
Today, it’s hard to believe that people would live like that — but much of “Fun Home” takes place some 40 years ago. (Mollie LaTorre’s costuming for Joshua Parrott, playing young men who catch Bruce’s eye, nicely indicates the 1970s.)
This cast so completely becomes their characters that you can virtually see the wheels whirring in their brains.
As Bruce, David Lowe edgily captures a man at war with himself — never quite able to fit into any of the worlds he longs for. Laura Hodos’s mother desperately tries not to see what’s staring her in the face. Like Roman, they give performances crafted with thought to every gesture, every emotion that flits across their expressive faces.
The younger set also excels. Emilie Scheetz, as college-age Alison, beautifully captures the confusing mix of fear and giddiness that accompanies coming out, while Raina Grabowski lights up the stage as Alison’s youngest incarnation.
By show’s end, Bechdel hasn’t found all her answers, which in a dramatic setting could be unsatisfying. But Mad Cow’s thoughtful production elegantly shows how in both theater and life, the journey can be as rewarding as the destination.