Booked & Scene

Fun Home arrives at The Huntington with music by Jeanine Tesori and book and lyrics by Lisa Kron based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel and directed by Logan Ellis. The show follows Alison as she looks back on her childhood, her time in college, and her complicated relationship with her father. It moves between memories that are warm, confusing, joyful, and painful while Alison tries to understand her family and the truth she has been carrying for years.

Welcome to the Standout Zone

Maya Jacobson as Medium Alison is the spark that keeps finding new ways to glow. She lights up every moment she is onstage and carries the emotional weight of the show with confidence and heart. She is funny, awkward, endearing, and wide eyed as she steps into this new version of herself. Her performance of “Changing My Major” feels fresh and full of life, and her connection with Sushma Saha as Joan is a joy to watch. The energy that pours out of her as she discovers who she is becoming is infectious and she draws the audience in again and again.

When she returns from college and sits with her mother Jennifer Ellis as Helen Bechdel we get one of the most gutting scenes of the night. Jennifer delivers “Days and Days” with a quiet ache that sits heavy in the room. Their scenes together are devastating but they are also some of the most compelling and emotionally detailed moments in the production. Jennifer Ellis creates a portrait of a woman who has kept herself together for so long that the seams are barely hanging on. From her flashes of warmth with her children during scenes with Small Alison played by Lyla Randall to her strained conversations with Medium Alison as she shares the truth about Bruce it becomes clear how much she is trying to carry and how little she has left to hold. It is heartbreaking in a very human way.

Lyla Randall as Small Alison brings an open heart and an easy sincerity to the role. “Come To The Fun Home” is bright and goofy and delightful and shows the lively side of the Bechdel kids. Her “Ring of Keys” is beautifully done and captures that early spark of recognition with clarity and tenderness.

Wyatt Anton as Roy/Pete/Mark/Bobby Jeremy is another major win. He delivers a fantastic performance across every role and his presence on The Huntington stage is well deserved. His vocals in “Raincoat of Love” and “Helen’s Etude” shine and he brings nuance to each of the men he plays. It is a strong piece of casting and he more than earns the spotlight. Between Wyatt and Maya the show has two powerhouses who capture your attention in very different but equally compelling ways. 

Signs of Life

Celeste Jennings gives the cast a beautiful set of costumes. They are thoughtful, expressive, and full of personality. “Raincoat of Love” is a visual treat and the designs for both Small and Medium Alison fit them perfectly. Honestly there is not a weak note anywhere in the costume work.

The set pieces by Tanya Orellana are detailed and imaginative and the sheer number of props crafted by Andrew Reynolds is impressive. The specificity in the details is clear and the work that went into building this world shows. The audience even gets not one but two coffins which is a choice that settles right into the strange charm of this musical.

Keys That Didn’t Quite Turn

I adore this show which makes it tough to say that a large part of this production did not land for me. Nick Duckart as Bruce Bechdel never fully connected with what the role requires. Bruce is complicated. He is conflicted, troubled, loving, distant, and deeply flawed, and Alison is carrying both the trauma he caused and the love she still has for him. In this production, he felt harsh from start to finish, Nick’s portrayal leaned entirely into cruelty with no tenderness or conflict underneath. There was no sense of the man Alison is grieving. Without that balance it becomes harder to understand why these memories haunt her so intensely. 

A lot of this connects to the direction by Logan Ellis which often felt like it shifted the story away from Alison and closer to Bruce. At times it even seemed to center Bruce more than her which does not align with the heart of this piece. The tone around him felt unrelenting with moments of cruel physicality which made the emotional landscape much narrower than the show usually offers. You see this especially in individual scenes.The moment between Bruce and Roy during “Helen’s Etude” is not something Alison would have seen, only something she is imagining as she tries to understand her father. Because of that the scene really depends on capturing the emotional complexity she is reaching for, yet Nick Duckart’s choices as Bruce leaned so far in one direction that the moment lost its nuance. Instead of offering insight it shifted the focus away from Alison’s perspective. On the other side of things the scenes between Medium Alison and Joan never had the room they deserved. Their connection is a major turning point for Alison and I wanted to feel that spark and sense of discovery, but the staging and pacing kept that from fully landing. These choices made it harder to follow Alison’s emotional path in the clear way the show usually allows and they softened the impact of moments that should have felt electric.

There were also choices in the staging that kept pulling me out of the story. Set pieces moved in every possible way. Some rolled on tracks. Some were brought on by actors. Some by the crew. Others dropped from above. Instead of feeling dynamic it began to feel scattered, which is a shame because the pieces themselves were beautifully made. There was a feeling of constant motion without direction and I often wanted the production to slow down and let us appreciate the careful work put into those elements. Less would have been more.

The way Alison’s large drawing desk was placed throughout the show also revealed this lack of cohesion, since Sarah Bockel hardly interacted with it. Alison is a cartoonist reflecting on her life, yet the desk often sat front and center without serving the moment. Even when it was not in the middle of the stage it was pushed to the back wall as if it had been forgotten. It felt like a missed chance to anchor the story in Alison’s point of view and let the audience see her sketching as part of the narrative.

The overall design choices also left me puzzled. The giant painted trees created a striking picture but did not seem connected to the world of the Bechdel house. The cut out window revealing the orchestra was similarly confusing. While the orchestra under Jessie Rosso was wonderful to hear, I struggled to understand how this choice supported the story or Alison’s memory.

Finally, there was the decision to bring out a fully exposed cadaver for a single scene. It felt unnecessary and did not reflect how a real funeral home would handle a body. Beyond that it came across as a moment meant for shock which only reinforced the harsher interpretation of Bruce that ran through much of this specific interpretation. 

Final Reflections

Fun Home is a show I have been excited about all season and there are parts of this production that absolutely deliver. Maya Jacobson is extraordinary. Wyatt Anton is outstanding. Lyla Randall brings joy and Jennifer Ellis brings strength and sorrow in equal measure. These performances alone make the night worthwhile. This story carries so much truth and power and deserves to be told. If you have never seen Fun Home before this production will give you a meaningful introduction even if those of us who know the show well may walk away with more complicated thoughts. Even when the production falters, the heart of this story still comes through. Fun Home gives space to memory, identity, and grief in a way that few shows do. There is real value in sitting with a piece that invites us to see our own families and younger selves with a little more compassion. When a show invites people to do that kind of work it is worth showing up for. Fun Home runs through December 14. 

📸: Marc J Franklin