Fun Home

The Public Theater takes a risk that pays off when they present "Fun Home," a daring new musical based on Alison Bechdel's graphic novel about growing up with her closeted gay father in a funeral home. With music by Jeanine and Tesori and lyrics by Lisa Kron, the comic antics come to life.

Director Sam Gold does a fine job with the unique challenge of looking at Bechdel's childhood growing up in a funeral home, and dealing with not just her own burgeoning lesbianism, but also her father's homosexuality. The whole family functions under this bubble of an idea that "Chaos never happens if it's never seen."

But of course, it does. The play moves between past and present, with the grown-up Bechdel (Beth Malone) standing in almost every scene, as a sort of narrator. We learn early in the play that her father has committed suicide by walking in front of an approaching truck, but it doesn't mar the enjoyment of the action.

Four-time Tony Award-nominated composer Jeanine Tesori does a good job putting this tale to music, a feat that seems impossible until you see how well it is executed.

Michael Cerveris is brilliant as Bruce Bechdel, a role that is a million miles away from his turns as Sweeney Todd or even his portrayal of German transsexual rock diva Hedwig in "Hedwig and the Angry Inch." He is flawless as a middle-aged schlub who teaches high school English, restores historical houses and occasionally picks up young men for sex.

Other standouts include Sydney Lucas as young Alison. She opens the show with a temper tantrum song, and her moxie is infectious. Her voice is also amazing as she hits the high notes. She cuts quite a picture as she dances and sings with her 'brothers,' Griffin Birney and Noah Hinsdale, especially in the spirited advertisement the kids create for the Bechdel 'Fun' Home, in which they engage in spirited end rhymes about body preparation and formaldehyde. Her tune about spotting an old-school butch deliveryman in the local diner brought was a tearjerker, even as the bit about her giant ring of keys made me laugh knowingly.

As the college-aged Alison, Alexandra Socha also has a strong voice, especially in her song to her first lover, Joan. As she sings out, "I'm changing my major to Joan! I'm changing my major to sex with Joan!"

The put-upon mother Helen (Judy Kuhn) does a fine job relaying her frustration over being married to a man that is a serial philanderer, sometimes with under-age boys and former students. She has endured her husband's peccadillos since they first married, and is now a hostage to their museum of a house, constantly polishing and cleaning. Her most poignant advice to her grown-up daughter is simply to escape this hell.

Kudos to scenic and costume design by David Zinn and choreography by Danny Mefford. The circulating platform on the stage allows for a multitude of action to occur, and the sets, which include an old-style floor model TV set broadcasting shows like "The Partridge Family" are very authentic.

In the end, however, Bechdel comes to terms with the fact that she "can draw a circle [he] lived [his] life inside." Although their Pennsylvania home was located only four miles from the I-80, linking Christopher Street to the Castro, he was never able to get away. But by going against the strict edicts of her father, she was able to break out of a cloistered house trapped in time and become her own person.