Porchlight Music Theatre: Fun Home Review
Meena Sood (SMALL ALISON), Alanna Chavez (ALISON) and Z Mowry (MIDDLE ALISON)
Porchlight Music Theatre Presents FUN HOME Review - Searching In The Past To Find Balance
TLDR: While working on her first graphic novel, cartoonist Alison Bechdel looks back at her childhood in a funeral home, coming out to her parents, and life after her father dies. Told in memory snapshots, Fun Home is a reconciliation with the past for Alison and remembering her own growth journey.
Members of the cast of FUN HOME
Porchlight Entwines Realism and Cartoons
Boxes and boxes and empty frames hang everywhere around the stage. Some large, some small, some tall and skinny, others perfectly squat and square. Windows hang suspended in midair high above the stage. And a frame like a house surrounds all of it. Already there’s an air of surrealism, fun, and a little kookiness in this production of Fun Home.
When it’s time to change scenes, frames will light up. Tasteful wallpapered walls with portraits and a floor lamp with a beaded fringe light up two boxes when we’re at home. A square near the bottom looks like a cluttered desk with a mug, pens, photos, and an Oberlin pennant hanging on the wall when we’re in Middle Alison’s college dorm room. Some elements are illustrated, like a chandelier or a globe reminding us our main character, Alison, is an artist and we’re seeing her book played out on stage before us.
The set and lighting design by Jonathan Berg-Einhorn and Denise Karczewski makes it easy to bounce back and forth between time periods as current day Alison works on her graphic novel. She revisits moments from her past to try and understand why her father may have killed himself. Was it because of her coming out? Was there something she missed in all those years? We abandon chronological order, reminiscent of flitting and passing memories themselves.
Alison Times Three
Along with revisiting memories comes seeing our past selves. While current day Alison, played by Alanna Chavez, stands at her drafting table, captioning moments as they happen for her book, she sees two of her past selves - Small Alison played by Meena Sood (who rotates with Tessa Mae Pundsack) and Middle Alison played by Z Mowry.
Sood playing Small Alison plays her with an almost unending amount of brightness and a smile stretching from ear to ear. There’s a literal sparkle in her eye when she describes seeing an old school butch lesbian for the first time and feeling an immediate kinship with her in “Ring of Keys.”
Mowry playing Middle Alison stands uncertainly in front of the meeting for the gay student union. They shout dánke awkwardly at a knowing Joan before running away as quickly as possible. They capture the awkwardness of the college years when you’re discovering who you are right alongside the first steps of coming out of the closet.
Chavez steps into the spotlight as she remembers that fateful car ride with her father, one of the last memories she has with him. Her impassioned cries of say something to herself during “Telephone Wire” have us aching and feeling her need to reach out and find that connection. But we get the crushing blow when the song ends abruptly and they find themselves back at home all too soon.
All three Alison’s capture these specific stages in Alison’s life and we see the picture of life in the Fun Home come together.
Meena Sood (SMALL ALISON) and Alanna Chavez (ALISON)
A Family Struggling
The Fun Home comes from the family business working as a funeral home (get it?) and the kids make due when they’re little playing games around the house. Charlie Long playing Christian and Hayes McCracken playing John join Small Alison as they create and perform a fun jingle for the funeral home before being put back to work cleaning and polishing the house to their father’s specifications.
Neala Barron as Alison’s mother, Helen, shows Alison vulnerability and honesty. Barron lays it all bare in “Days and Days” belting about what she thought life was supposed to be and how it was all shattered. Byrnes gives us a multi-faceted portrait of her father, Bruce, and shows us a hidden away feeling during “Edges of the World.”
One theme comes to each of them - balance. They search for balance and feel peaceful when they find it, Helen, Bruce, and Alison alike. But tip too far in one direction, and you find yourself lost. So though Alison may not have a perfect resolution or answer to her search for understanding, we feel at peace and balanced as the three Alison’s soar in “Flying Away.”
The After Party Thoughts
I did see Fun Home when it was here on tour a few years ago, so perhaps because I already knew what was coming, it didn’t have as much of an emotional impact on me this time around. But that’s not to say this cast doesn’t deliver on the emotions. All of the main characters pack a punch and dig deep to find the most vulnerable parts of these characters to show us. So if you are ready for a personal growth journey, Fun Home would be a good fit for you.
RECOMMENDED
Patrick Byrnes
When
Now through March 2, 2025
Where
The Ruth Page Center For The Arts
1016 N Dearborn St.
Chicago, IL 60610
Runtime: 1hr 40 minutes, no intermission
Tickets
$20+
Tickets can be purchased through the Porchlight Theatre website
Photos
Liz Lauren
Z Mowry
CAST
Neala Barron (she/her, Helen)
Liz Bollar (she/they, Helen U/S, Alison U/S)
Patrick Byrnes (he/him, Bruce)
Alanna Chavez (she/her, Alison)
Eli Vander Griend (he/him, Christian)
King Hang (he/him, Roy/Mark/Pete/Bobby/Jeremy U/S)
Austin Hartung (he/him, John)
Josiah Haugen (he/him, Bruce U/S)
Dakota Hughes (they/them, Joan, dance/intimacy captain)
Charlie Long (he/him, Christian)
Adelina Marinello (she/her, middle Alison U/S, Joan U/S)
Hayes McCracken (he/him, John)
Z Mowry (they/them, middle Alison)
Tessa Mae Pundsack (she/her, small Alison)
Meena Sood (she/her, small Allison)
Lincoln J. Skoien (any with respect, Roy/Mark/Pete/Bobby/Jeremy).
CREATIVE
Stephen Schellhardt (he/him, director)
Heidi Joosten (she/her, music director/conductor)
Sheryl Williams (she/they, intimacy coordinator)
Jonathan Berg-Einhorn (he/him, scenic designer)
Marquecia Jordan (she/her, costume designer)
Denise Karczewski (she/her, lighting designer)
Matthew R. Chase (he/him, sound designer)
Drew Donnelly (he/him, production stage manager, AEA)
Carli Shapiro (they/them, assistant stage manager)
Olivia Leslie (she/her, assistant stage manager)
John McTaggart (he/him, technical director)
Danny Carraher (he/him, assistant technical director)
Lydia Moss (she/her, scenic charge)
Kayne Bowling (he/they, lead carpenter)
Mark Brown (he/him, deck chief)
Bette Schneider (she/her, costume director)
Rachel West (she/her, lighting director)
Riley Woods (they/them, assistant lighting director)
Sam Anderson (they/she, lead electrician)
Morgan Dudaryk (she/they, audio and video director)
Kim Carbone (he/him, A1)
Ali Westendorf (she/they, asst. costume director/wardrobe supervisor )
Amanda May (she/her, hair & makeup director)
Clare McCullough (she/her, wardrobe assistant)
Patrick McGuire (any with respect, properties director)
Heather Gervasi (she/her, associate production manager)
Linda Madonia (she/her, musician contractor)
Michael Weber (he/him, artistic director/resident director)
Majel Cuza (she/her, director of production)
Frankie Leo Bennett (he/him, producing and casting associate)
Eileen Doan (she/her, guitars)
Craig Buckner (he/him, drums)
Sophie Cruetz (she/her, reeds)
Rachel Schudt (she/her, cello)
Lewis Rawlinson (he/him, cello sub)