Transporting the audience

Staging of ‘Fun Home’ subtly maintains intimacy of story

It’s difficult to point to one element that helped “Fun Home” become one of the most poignant and successful Broadway musicals of the past few years.

Part of the multifaceted production’s allure was the personal and distinctive source material of Alison Bechdel’s 2006 graphic memoir. And Lisa Kron’s playful yet emotive music and lyrics. And the dynamic cast of young actors that have played Small, Medium and Adult Alison.

And then there was the dynamic staging at the Circle in the Square Theatre when the musical opened on Broadway in 2015. Conceived by director Sam Gold and scenic designer David Zinn, the Broadway production reimagined the original proscenium-style staging of its off-Broadway premiere at the Public Theater, turning a traditionally staged musical into a rare, in-the-round affair.

The intimate, seen-from-all-angles perspective was widely praised for its ability to bring the audience into the Bechdels’ home as Alison looks back to her childhood, with a focus on the loving but fraught relationship with her father. Couches, cabinets and tables rise from the ground like memories appearing out of thin air as Alison narrates her past and reminisces about her meticulously kept home. That kind of staging, the musical’s creators say, was a creative obstacle that turned into an opportunity.

“Both Sam (Gold) and I were attracted to the challenge,” Zinn says. “It seemed hard. We said, “Let’s do that.’ The thing we gained was nobody was more than 10 feet from the stage.”

Gold, who won a Tony in 2015 for directing “Fun Home,” agrees.

“The exciting directing challenge of ‘Fun Home’ for me has always been the way it tells its story in three simultaneous times/ spaces. You see Alison as a young girl, but you also have the opportunity to see that same moment through the eyes of her older self,” Gold says via email. “And to give those multiple perspectives to the audience, we were drawn to the in-the-round staging.”

But now that “Fun Home” is touring the country, it’s returning to its proscenium roots — again, an obstacle that can present itself as an opportunity. The tour, which begins a run Tuesday at the Hobby Center and continues through May 28, will appear as a combination of the original off-Broadway staging and its original Public Theater incarnation.

“Our goal was to bring everything as close to the audience as possible,” Zinn says. “In service of keeping the story really contained, the stage isn’t very deep. Even for the houses that have a lot of depth in them, we created our own backwall to push the action down.”

In other words: Zinn and Gold knew creating “Fun Home” in a big theater house can risk losing the sense of intimacy from its Broadway incarnation, so they used the technology and resources they had to provide the audience none of the spectacle of a dazzling musical and all of the story of a heartbreaking personal tale.

“We feel we can give you those unique perspectives, those simultaneous modes of storytelling in a larger proscenium environment without losing the focus and intimacy that makes the show so special,” Gold says.

All this talk of prosceniums and deep stages isn’t really about prosceniums and deep stages, says Zinn, who recognized that the success of “Fun Home” was never supposed to be technical.

“The thing about working with Sam is, you don’t ever talk about scenery,” he says. “The solutions

Set planning went into re-creating “Fun Home,” starring Alessandra Baldacchino, from left, Pierson Salvador and Lennon Nate Hammond, from the Broadway version to keep the focus on the tale. Joan Marcus

to a play aren’t scenic. They’re about making a room for the play to happen in.”

Of course, “Fun Home” wasn’t the first hit Zinn has made with Gold. Zinn says the two approached Annie Baker’s “The Flick,” which won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, with a similar mind-set. That show, another distinctive set created to service a personal drama, put audiences in a movie theater. The creative duo, in other words, has a track record for sets that can almost trick people into thinking they’re somewhere else.

“The conversation is always tone, the vibe of the room,” he says. “You always start with nothing, try to do this without anything. It keeps you honest about introducing new objects. What we’re after is, we want you to have a certain experience, and we don’t want to make the experience, ‘Look at this thing, now look at this thing.’ ”

“And then you add in the music,” Zinn adds, mentioning how Kron’s compositions complete his and Gold’s emotional picture. “It’s so beautiful. It’s that crazy witchcraft that music can do. It’s your emotional guide through the piece.”