‘Fun Home’ elicits laughs, sighs of recognition
‘Fun Home’Through August 20Studio Theatre1501 14th St., N.W.$75-$125Studiotheatre.org With its nod to domestic turmoil and the pangs of youth, “Fun Home” is the kind of tragicomic show that elicits both laughs and sighs of recognition, especially if you’re queer.
Initially a 2006 bestselling graphic memoir by lesbian cartoonist Alison Bechdel, “Fun Home” was successfully adapted for stage by Jeanine Tesori (music) and Lisa Kron (book and lyrics) and went on to win the 2015 Tony Award for Best Adapted Musical and a place in theater history as the first Broadway musical to feature a lesbian main character.
It’s now playing at Studio Theatre. When we meet 43-year-old Alison (out actor Andrea Prestinario), she’s a together graphic artist poised to take a deep dive into the past.
With the help of her girlhood diary and several decades worth of sketches, the lesbian protagonist looks back on her unorthodox childhood in small town Pennsylvania and some seminal years at Oberlin College in scenes acted by Alison’s younger selves, nine-year-old Small Alison and college age Medium Alison (Quinn Titcomb and Maya Jacobson, respectively).
