Front Porch opens its doors to prize- winning ‘ Fun Home’

You know that if you’re going to a Front Porch Theatricals musical, it’s going to have a bit of an edge, something to make you think, and you still might leave humming a tune.

That’s the thing about “Fun Home,” the company’s season finale that opens Friday at the New Hazlett Theater on the North Side. It does all those things, plus the show made history as the first Broadway musical by women to win the Tony Award’s top prize and the first with a lesbian protagonist.

The musical is based on Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir about a closeted father and the effects of his choices on his family. Veteran Pittsburgh actor Daniel Krell plays Bruce Bechdel, a role he pursued when his wife, actress Daina Michelle Griffith, heard that Front Porch would be doing “Fun Home.” She told her husband he’d be perfect for the role.

“I thought, “Hmm, perfect as a closeted control freak?’” he said with a chuckle. “It’s such a great role, so well written, as all the roles are, and so actor friendly — it wants an actor who wants to dive in there. But it’s also an ensemble piece, not a big cast with a big chorus.”

It may help that Krell has played father figures before, recently in Pittsburgh Public Theater’s excellent “A Doll’s House, Part 2,” and for Front Porch in a memorable “Floyd Collins.” Bruce Bechdel is as complicated a character as it gets in a musical, with the added task of relating to a group of child actors and the three Alisons at various ages.

“This is the first time I’ve looked around and realized that I was the oldest actor in the room,” he said. “I mean, that’s what it is. There’s no uncle or grandfather of mine written into the play. But it just hit me.”

The role of Small Alison is played by sixth- grader Livia Rocco, who attends East Catholic School in Forest Hills. “Small” in this case means “preteen” — there’s also Medium ( college- age) Alison, played by Nuala Cleary, and Drew Leigh Williams as grown- up Alison, looking back at her life.

Alison’s mother, Helen, will be played by Stage 62 regular Cynthia Dougherty. Pittsburgh CAPA students Daniel Frontz, recently seen in Pittsburgh CLO’s “Peter Pan,” and Eamonn McElfresh will play Alison’s kid brothers. Three Carnegie Mellon University students are in the cast: rising juniors Cleary, Essence Stiggers ( Joan) and Tristan A. Hernandez ( Roy and others).

As much as a veteran such as Krell can teach his young castmates, he said he has found a lot to take in as well.”

“I went to a performing arts high school, I did four years of undergrad and three years of grad school, all in acting,” he said, “and I’m looking at these kids, who haven’t done all of that, and they are playing scenes, playing objectives and actions and obstacles, and all these things, and I’m thinking, ‘ What are they doing?’

I’m watching and learning from them.”

Krell never studied music; he considers himself an actor who sings. And certainly the “Fun Home” songs by composer Jeanine Tesori and lyricist Lisa Kron, from bouncy kids stuff to comedy to wrenchingly emotional, are an actor’s delight.

“However,” he noted, “people always say Sondheim writes for actors, which is absolutely true, except the music he wrote is difficult. ... So, while this is an actor’s piece, it seems like, since Sondheim, writers are like, ‘ Oh, I can make it even more difficult.’”

That is to say, the music of “Fun Home” can be challenging, particularly for Krell’s character. There also are fun moments at the funeral home, including the kids’ Partridge Family- esque jingle, and Medium Alison’s revelation, “I’m Changing My Major to Joan.”

“That’s just smart writing,” Krell said of the different shades of light and dark that permeate “Fun Home.”

The season that began with the Tony- nominated “Bright Star” concludes with “Fun Home,” both receiving their first regional productions via Front Porch. Krell recalled that he first heard about the company from PG Performer of the Year Griffith, circa 2013, who has appeared in several Front Porch shows.

At the time, she told him that the young company was inexperienced, but they are very open to learning how to do it right.

“She said their hearts are in the right place, and they choose great pieces to do because they actually believe in a mission statement,” Krell said. “When people ask me about the company, that’s the first thing I say: Their hearts are in the right place, and I think that is apparent in the pieces they choose to do.”