The intimate production was well-showcased during last night's Tony Awards broadcast on CBS, which featured a Tony-nominated (and astonishing) performance by young actress Sydney Lucas. In addition to winning Best Musical, Fun Home took honors for Best Direction (Sam Gold), Best Actor (Michael Cerveris), Best Book (Lisa Kron) and Best Score (Kron and Jeanine Tesori).
With box office figures still being tallied in the post-Tony Awards glow, it is expected that Fun Home also stands to take in over $600,000 at the box office June 8, representatives told Playbill.com. That's a major feat for a production running in Broadway's second-smallest smallest theatre (Circle in the Square at only 730 seats).
Fun Home previously broke records April 28 at Circle in the Square, hitting $392,450 at the box office the day it received 12 Tony nominations. It was the first musical to reach that benchmark at the venue. Star-driven plays such as The River with Hugh Jackman previously surpassed that sum at the theatre.
Director Gold, who helmed the show's Off-Broadway premiere at the Public Theater last season, re-imagined the show's original proscenium staging for its Broadway transfer, which is now presented in-the-round. The musical opened April 19 to strong reviews. Read them all here.
Fun Home has music by Tony Award nominee Tesori (Caroline, Or Change; Shrek) and book and lyrics by Tony Award nominee Kron (Well).
Many members of the original Off-Broadway cast return for the uptown transfer, including stars Beth Malone, Judy Kuhn, Sydney Lucas and Michael Cerveris.
The writers are charting new territory in a medium that has been strongly shaped by gay male culture on stage and off. Lesbian musicals are nearly unheard of. "Even musicals about women, where women are the central characters and not just a romantic lead and really have a story of their own [are rare]," Bechdel told Playbill.com during the show's original Off-Broadway run. "The moment with Small Alison singing about the butch delivery woman feels huge. To have a child sing about desire and identification; it's brilliant."'
Malone (Alison), Lucas (Small Alison) and Emily Skeggs (Medium Alison) portray author-narrator Bechdel at various stages of her life. The principal cast also features Tony nominee Kuhn as Helen Bechdel and Tony Award winner Cerveris Bruce Bechdel.
The cast is completed by Joel Perez as Roy, Roberta Colindrez as Joan, with Zell Morrow and Oscar Williams as Alison’s brothers John and Christian, respectively.
Fun Home, a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, is produced by Fox Theatricals (Kristin Caskey, Mike Isaacson) and Barbara Whitman, along with Carole Shorenstein Hays, Tom Casserly, Paula Marie Black, Latitude Link, Terry Schnuck/Jack Lane, The Forstalls, Nathan Vernon, Mint Theatricals, Elizabeth Armstrong, JAM Theatricals, and Delman Whitney.
The creative team also includes Danny Mefford (choreography), David Zinn (set and costume design), Ben Stanton (lighting design), Kai Harada (sound design) and Chris Fenwick (music direction).
Fun Home is described as "a fresh, daring new musical based on the acclaimed graphic novel by Alison Bechdel. When her father dies unexpectedly, graphic novelist Alison dives deep into her past to tell the story of the volatile, brilliant, one-of-a-kind man whose temperament and secrets defined her family and her life. Moving between past and present, Alison relives her unique childhood playing at the family’s Bechdel Funeral Home, her growing understanding of her own sexuality and the looming, unanswerable questions about her father's hidden desires."
For tickets, visit Telecharge.com.
