Review: FUN HOME at Porchlight Music Theatre

Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron’s FUN HOME is a musical journey in sketches through the memories of Alison Bechdel, as she comes into her queer identity and as she tries to unpack her immensely complicated relationship with her troubled, stern, and closeted father, Bruce, who died by suicided when she was in college. Based on the graphic memoir of the same name — and so called because the Bechdel family business was a funeral home — Porchlight director Stephen Schellhardt’s production brings each scene sharply to life. 

The show divides the role of Alison in three: adult Alison (Alanna Chavez), Middle Alison (Z Mowry), and Small Alison (Tessa Mae Pundsack at the performance I saw, alternating with Meena Sood.) It’s a brilliant narrative device because it allows Alison to quite literally look back at herself. Chavez, Mowry, and Pundsack also had a nice rapport and did a lovely job of showing the connection between the Alisons without mimicking each other too much. Many of the production’s visual details follow that path, particularly Marquecia Jordan’s period-appropriate costume designs. Jordan has a specific color palette for Alison — shades of yellow — but all the Alisons don’t match perfectly. 

Alison presides over the show as narrator, brainstorming various “captions” for her memoir cartoons. Narratively, Kron also reveals the least amount of intimate details about adult Alison until the show’s end. It’s as if FUN HOME reveals that Alison has to look back at her younger selves and the truths they reveal before she shares more with us. That works especially well with Chavez’s performance; she has a laid-back but affable approach to Alison, with just enough punch. She’s a gentle narrator, guiding us through the complexities of her upbringing. Pundsack has plenty of pluck and earnestness as Small Alison, while Mowry has just the right amount of simultaneous adolescent exasperation and elation. 

Even though Alison is the show’s protagonist, the figure of Bruce Bechdel looms large. Understudy Josiah Haugen played Bruce at the performance I saw. He had a particularly caustic approach to dealing with the Bechdel children, and he was especially lecherous when approaching the young men with whom he had illicit affairs (all played by Lincoln J. Skoien). I think his harsh take on the role swung Bruce in the direction of unlikable, even though for Alison, the relationship with her father is meant to be a grey area. But the contrast between Bruce’s immense self-loathing and then college age Alison’s new elation at discovering her queer identity comes into sharp relief. Particularly with Mowry’s relaxed but sunny approach to Medium Alison, it becomes even more heartbreaking that her father refuses to accept himself or her when she’s so ready to come into her own. Still, I thought Bruce was an especially troubling figure in this production. I wanted the focus to shift yet more onto the Alisons. 

The sketches of levity and discovery are especially crisp and enjoyable in Porchlight’s staging. “Come to the Fun Home” is an early, humorous highlight in which Small Alison and her brothers John (Austin Hartung, alternating with Hayes McCracken) and Christian (Eli Vander Griend, alternating with Charlie Long) stage their own commercial for the family business. Pundack, Vander Griend, and Hartung have a great sense of play and earnestness. 

Pundsack also steals the show with her solo “Ring of Keys.” Tesori’s score and Kron’s lyrics are strongest for this number, too. The song beautifully captures a moment of queer recognition for Small Alison when she spots a “butch lesbian” delivery driver while at a diner with her father. Small Allison has a moment of self-discovery when she realizes she doesn’t need to be traditionally feminine; she sees a peek into her adult future. Pundsack has a gorgeously heartfelt and earnest delivery, letting her performance build as Small Alison’s elation grows. 

Likewise, Mowry does a beautiful job with “Changing My Major,” in which Medium Alison declares she’s changing her college major to her girlfriend Joan (Dakota Hughes). Mowry and Hughes have a lovely connection, and Hughes does particularly well as the supportive girlfriend who allows Medium Alison space to process her feelings — it’s an especially moving contrast with the harshness of Bruce. 

Neala Barron, who I’m always delighted to see on a musical theater stage, is incredible as Helen, Alison’s mother who looks away from her husband’s transgressions in the name of keeping her family together. She makes a real showpiece of her solo “Days and Days,” a haunting number in which Helen finally releases her emotions. Barron is so strong and so revealing. 

By contrast, I thought the last twenty minutes or so of the show dragged here; Bruce’s final solo “Edges of the World” doesn’t seem illuminating or necessary, especially after “Days and Days” and Alison’s duet with him “Telephone Wire,” in which she imagines what she might have said to her father in one of their final conversations. While Helen and adult Alison still have revelations for us, Bruce really doesn’t. 

Overall, FUN HOME — and specifically Porchlight’s production — gives us some really touching moments. Tesori’s score is consistent, if not especially memorable, and Kron’s book and lyrics smartly bring sketches from Alison’s life into clear view. And with the trio of Chavez, Mowry, and Pundsack as the Alisons, the show has made a winsome protagonist even more winsome. 

Porchlight Music Theatre’s production of FUN HOME runs through March 2, 2025 at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 North Dearborn. Tickets are $20-$85.

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