“Fun Home” book by Lisa Kron
Starring Michael Cerveris
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Fun Home is a musical adapted by Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori from Alison Bechdel’s 2006 graphic memoir of the same name. As in the book, the story concerns the father-daughter relationship between Alison Bechdel and her father Bruce Bechdel. It has been called “the first mainstream musical about a young lesbian.”
The musical was developed at the Ojai Playwrights Conference in 2009, and at the Sundance Theatre Lab and The Public Theater’s Public Lab in 2012. It opened Off-Broadway at the Public Theater in September 2013 to positive reviews. Its run was extended several times, and it ran until January 2014.
The Public Theater production of Fun Home was nominated for nine Lucille Lortel Awards (winning three, including Outstanding Musical), seven Outer Critics Circle Awards (winning Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical), three Drama League Awards, eight Drama Desk Awards, and the Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best New Musical (which it won). It was also a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, but lost to The Flick by Annie Baker. It won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Musical and the Obie Award for Musical Theater. 10-year-old star Sydney Lucas also won an Obie in the Performance category, becoming the youngest performer ever to win an Obie.
Fun Home at Circle in the Square Theatre
First Preview Mar 27, 2015
Opening Night Apr 19, 2015
Reviews
Cast
Michael Cerveris – Bruce
Michael originated the role of Bruce Bechdel in Fun Home at the Public Theater, winning the 2014 Lucille Lortel Award for Best Actor. He received the Tony Award for his portrayal of John Wilkes Booth in Assassins, and Tony nominations for his roles in Evita, LoveMusik, Sweeney Todd, and The Who’s Tommy. Other Broadway appearances include In The Next Room (Or The Vibrator Play), Hedda Gabler, Cymbeline, and Titanic. Known for his versatility as an actor, Cerveris also performed in Off-Broadway productions of King Lear, Macbeth, Nikolai and the Others, and Sondheim’s Road Show, among others, and brought his performance as Hedwig from Off Broadway to LA and London’s West End. Cerveris has also appeared in many films and television series, including roles on the The Good Wife, Treme, and Fringe. He has sung with the NY City Opera and the NY Philharmonic, and at venues ranging from Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and Lincoln Center to New Orleans’ JazzFest and a tour playing guitar for Bob Mould. Cerveris has recorded two solo albums, Dog Eared and the upcoming Piety. His country band Loose Cattle recently released their live debut record, North of Houston.
Rebecca Luker – Helen
Broadway: Cinderella, Mary Poppins, Nine, The Music Man, The Sound of Music, Showboat, The Secret Garden, The Phantom of the Opera. Off Broadway: Indian Blood, The Vagina Monologues, Canʼt Let Go, X (Life of Malcolm X), and Brigadoon. Concerts: The American Songbook Series, The Boys from Syracuse and Whereʼs Charlie? (Encores!), No, No Nanette, Trouble in Tahiti, Gay Divorce (Carnegie Hall). Television: “Boardwalk Empire,” “Cupid and Cate,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “The Good Wife.” Film: The Rewrite and Not Fade Away. Recordings: I Got Love, Greenwich Time, Leaving Home, Anything Goes: Rebecca Luker Sings Cole Porter.
Beth Malone – Alison
Beth has been part of Fun Home through most of its formative stages, including the Sundance Theatre Lab and the critically acclaimed run at The Public Theatre. Beth spent much of last year at The Denver Center, starring as Molly Brown in the world premiere of a wholly reimagined version of The Unsinkable Molly Brown, directed by Kathleen Marshall. Other original Broadway and Off-Broadway credits include June Carter Cash in Ring of Fire, Betty Jean in The Marvelous Wonderettes, and Alison in Bingo!. Regional theatre appearances include 9 to 5, The Break Up Notebook, Annie Get Your Gun, Les Miserables, and the world premiere of Sister Act. Beth holds an MFA from UC Irvine. Original Cast Recordings: Fun Home, Ring of Fire, The Marvelous Wonderettes, Bingo!.
Lauren Patten – Medium Alison
Selected credits: Home Street Home (Zspace), Spring Awakening (Deaf West), Our Town (Indy Award), Bus Stop (Ovation nomination), The Diary of Anne Frank (Rubicon), Wait Until Dark (Geffen), A Christmas Carol (Goodman), and Training Wisteria (SPFNYC). TV: “Switched at Birth,” “Arrested Development,” and “Awkward.” Love to her family, KMR, and this amazing team!
Gabriella Pizzolo – Young Alison
Flying high on her return to Broadway, previously seen as Matilda in Matilda the Musical. Regional: Les Misérables (Young Cosette), Ragtime (Little Girl) and Miracle on 34th St. (Susan Walker). Gratitude and love to Dad, Mom, Gillian, Orlando School of Dance, Fun Home family, Jim Carnahan and John Mara Jr.
Roberta Colindrez – Joan
Roberta is a New York City based actor/writer. Stage: Fun Home (Public Theater, Sundance Theater Lab); Mala Hierba (2nd Stage Uptown); Water (NPR Presents:); The Complete and Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O’Neill: vol 2 and Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind (New York Neo Futurists) Song for the Disappeared (Sundance Theater Lab). Film/TV: GIRLS (HBO); Boardwalk Empire (HBO); Gotham (FOX); Unforgettable (CBS); F to 7th (webseries); Otis Under Sky (SXSW, co-writer); Birdman (dir: Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu); The Artist’s Assistant; Beautiful Dreamer.
Joel Perez – Roy/Pete/Bobby Jeremy
Joel is honored to make his Broadway debut after originating the role Off-Broadway at the Public Theater. Stage work includes In the Heights (1st National Tour), Fame (Macau Music Festival), Stuck Elevator (A.C.T. and Long Wharf Theater), The Mapmaker’s Opera (NYMF), and Pirates! (Huntington Theater). Ensemble member of Broken Box Mime Theater. TV work includes “Person of Interest†(CBS), The Big C (Showtime), and Black Box (ABC). He studied at Tufts University and The British American Drama Academy.
Zell Steele Morrow – John
Zell is super excited making his Broadway debut at age 8 in Fun Home! California credits Les Miserables (Gavroche, Woodminster), Peter Pan (Michael Darling, MST), A Christmas Carol (Tiny Tim), Wizard of Oz (Mayor, STAGE 1), Music Man (dancer, PCRT). Zell is extremely grateful for his loving, supportive, and talented sister Madilyn. Love and gratitude: David Doan-CESD, Matt Liebowitz (Voice), Janet Taddie, Gia Solari-CVPA and DMO (Dance), Teachers, Directors (Casting and Theatre), Choreographers, Friends (making trips to NY possible), Fun Home Team, Mom, Dad, Geema, and never-ending love and belief from Family.
Cole Grey – Christian
Age 10 and from NJ, Cole is thrilled to make his Broadway debut! Thanks to Barry Kolker, Susan Lipton, Sabina Kalfa, and the team at Annie’s Playhouse, especially Annie Forgione. Special thanks to my Mom and Dad, my Sister Reilly, Grandparents, Uncles Matt and Eric, Aunts MaryEllen and Kristin, along with my family and friends for their love, support and sacrifices.
Creative
Jeanine Tesori – Score
Jeanine Tesori composed the scores to the Broadway productions of Violet, Caroline, or Change (2004 Tony nomination for Best Original Score), Shrek the Musical (Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations for her music) and Thoroughly Modern Millie (2000). Her Off-Broadway musical Violet, (Obie Award, New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical, and Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical), opened on Broadway last season starring Sutton Foster. Her recent Off-Broadway musical, Fun Home, a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, played a sold-out run at the Public Theater last season, and will open on Broadway in the spring. She has written music for several plays, including Twelfth Night at Lincoln Center (Tony Nom. for best score), John Guare’s A Free Man of Color, and Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children, which was part of the 2006 Shakespeare in the Park season and starred Meryl Streep. Her film scores include Nights in Rodanthe, Every Day, and You’re Not You. Her opera, A Blizzard on Marblehead Neck (libretto by Tony Kushner) premiered at Glimmerglass Festival in 2011 and her newest opera, The Lion, the Unicorn and Me, had its world premiere run at D.C.’s Washington National Opera in December 2013. She is the creative director and co-founder (with Idina Menzel) of A Broader Way Foundation, an immersive arts education program for girls from underserved communities of New York City. She is the founding artistic director of Encores! Off-Center at New York City Center and is a lecturer in music at Yale University.
Lisa Kron – Book and Lyrics
Lisa Kron has been writing and performing theater since coming to New York from Michigan in 1983. In addition to Fun Home, plays include Well, (2006 Best Actress Tony nom., included in Best Plays of 2003-2004); 2.5 Minute Ride (Obie, L.A. Drama-Logue, GLAAD Media Awards); In The Wake (Lilly Award, included in Best Plays of 2010-2011); The Ver**zon Play (2011 Humana Festival). Most recent acting: Mrs. Mi-Tzu and Mrs. Yang in the Foundry Theater’s acclaimed production of Good Person of Szechuan (Lortel Award-Outstanding Featured Actress). Honors include Guggenheim, Sundance, Lark, and MacDowell fellowships, a Doris Duke Performing Artists Award, a Cal Arts/Alpert Award, ANVPI residency at Arena Stage, the Helen Merrill Award, and grants from the Creative Capital and NYFA. She is a proud founding member of the legendary OBIE and Bessie-Award-winning collaborative theater company The Five Lesbian Brothers. She serves on the boards of the MacDowell Colony and the Lilly Awards, and on the Council of the Dramatists Guild of America.
Alison Bechdel – Author of Graphic Novel
Alison Bechdel created the countercultural comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, which ran in lesbian and gay publications from 1983 to 2008. From her comic strip emerged the Bechdel Test, now an international benchmark for assessing gender bias in film. In 2006 Bechdel began to gain a wider readership with the publication of Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. This graphic memoir about her relationship with her closeted gay father was named Best Book of the year by Time Magazine. Bechdel’s second graphic memoir Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama, explores her relationship with her mother through the lens of psychoanalytic theory. Bechdel has drawn comics for The New Yorker, Slate, McSweeney’s, the New York Times Book Review, and Granta, among many other publications. She is the recipient of a 2012 Guggenheim Fellowship, and a 2014 MacArthur Fellowship.
Sam Gold – Director
Broadway: The Real Thing (Roundabout at the American Airlines); The Realistic Joneses (Lyceum Theater); Picnic (Roundabout at the American Airlines Theatre); Seminar (Golden Theatre; also Ahmanson, L.A.). Recent: The Mystery of Love and Sex (Lincoln Center); Fun Home (The Public Theater, Obie Award, Lortel and Drama Desk Nominations); The Village Bike (MCC); Cradle Will Rock (City Center Encores Series); The Flick (Playwrights Horizons, Lortel Nomination); Uncle Vanya (Soho Rep, Drama Desk nomination); The Realistic Joneses (Yale Rep., CT Critics Circle Award); The Big Meal (Playwrights Horizons, Lortel Award); Look Back in Anger (Roundabout, Lortel nomination); Circle Mirror Transformation (Playwrights Horizons, Drama Desk nomination, Obie Award); The Aliens (Rattlestick, Obie Award). Sam is the Resident Director at Roundabout Theatre Company. Training: Juilliard.
Musical Director: Chris Fenwick
Orchestrations by John Clancy
Scenic Design by David Zinn
Costume Design by David Zinn
Lighting Design by Ben Stanton
Sound Design by Kai Harada
Hair & Wig Design by Paul Huntley
Associate Scenic Design: Tim McMath
Associate Costume Design: Abigail Hahn
Associate Lighting Design: Ken Elliott and David Sexton
Associate Sound Design: Stephanie Celustka
Associate Wig Design: Giovanna Calabretta
Associate Hair Design: Rick Caroto
Moving Light Programmer: Alex Fogel
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