Inland Valley Repertory Theatre took its subscribers and donors on a memorable three-performance-only journey back to the 1970s and ’80s with Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir-turned-Tony-winning musical Fun Home, a young lesbian’s coming of age, coming out, and coming to grips with love and loss.

 Maya Grace Fischbein’s Small Alison grows up with two younger male siblings (Andrew Bar’s Christian and Lucca Beene’s John) in the family-run funeral home that gives the Jeanine Tesori-Lisa Kron musical its title.

Rachel Addington’s Medium Alison starts off college life with the realization that her childhood penchant for boys’ wear over dresses may be more than mere fashion statement.

Ashlee Espinosa’s forty-three-year-old Alison Bechdel may have a successful career as cartoonist/graphic novelist, but grown-up Alison finds it increasingly difficult to cope with memories of emotional childhood abuse and a young adulthood whose discoveries were met with the opposite of unconditional love.

Under Adult Alison’s ever watchful eye, Kron’s Tony-winning book zigzags between Small Alison’s finding herself at near constant loggerheads with a father whose mantra would appear to be “My way or the highway” and Middle Alison’s coming to the disturbing yet liberating realization that her professed asexuality is just self-delusion … and quickly disposed of with a kiss.

Family patriarch Bruce Bechdel (John LaLonde), meanwhile, struggles to balance marriage and a series of reckless same-sex hookups with, among others, muscular handyman Roy and at least one underage teen (Abel Miramontes in two of his five cameos) as his long-suffering wife Helen (Tracy Ray Reynolds) plays piano études rather than face the truth of her marital lie.

If all this sounds more than a tad dark, well, it’s definitely not Hairspray or The Producers, that’s for sure.

Fortunately for audiences who might otherwise overdose on gloom, composer Tesori and lyricist Kron have lightened things up with a couple of bright-and-bouncy musical numbers choreographed by Kim Eberhardt with disco-era pizzazz: “Come To The Fun Home,” featuring a trio of preteen Bechdels in Jackson Three mode and “Raincoat Of Love,” whose disco moves reimagine Alison’s parents and siblings as the picture-perfect Partridges.

Still, it’s Fun Home’s dramatic solos that provide the 2015 Best Musical Tony winner with its most compelling moments, Tesori and Kron giving all five major players a great big showstopper (including Bruce’s “Edges Of The World” and Helen’s “Days And Days”).

Best of all are the Alisons’ solo showcases. “Ring Of Keys” recalls the moment Small Alison saw future promise in a delivery woman’s butch swagger. “Changing My Major To Joan” is Medium Alison’s declaration of independence from her dysfunctional childhood and devotion to an out-and-proud classmate (Katherine Washington’s Joan). “Maps” is adult Alison’s reflection on her tormented father’s life and death.

Splitting a single leading role among them, Fun Home’s three female stars deliver the dramatic-vocal goods under Frank Minano’s assured direction.

Fischbein, who understudied all three preteen Bechdel siblings in the 2015-16 Broadway production, may now be a few years older than Small Alison is written, but she makes the role work just as well as a girl just entering her plucky teen years, a future feminist fighter who can give her Dad back as good as she gets, and her “Ring Of Keys” wows the crowd.

The luminous Addington vanishes into Middle Alison’s androgynous skin, transitioning from awkward to assured, and singing quite gorgeously to boot.

Though Kron’s book gives grown-up Alison not much more to do than observe and occasionally comment on the action, Espinosa finally gets her big moment when adult Alison gets to confront her Dad in a car ride she can only wish to have taken, and it’s a stunner.

Reynolds darkens her trademark sunshiny persona to give us a quietly devastated Helen whose “Days And Days” earns deserved cheers.

Miramontes’s hunky Roy is just one of his five distinct cameos,  Washington’s tough, self-assured Joan contrasts terrifically with Addington’s nervous Nellie of a Medium Alison, and rising child stars Bar and Beene make for a spunky pair of preteens.

Most stunning of all is LaLonde’s Bruce, a man so tormented by forbidden sexual urges that he lashes out with a passive-aggressive fury that is both horrifying and heartbreaking. Not only does LaLonde reveal glorious pipes, he acts the part with darkly dramatic, ultimately tragic force.

Musical director/keyboardist Andrew Orbison and the live Fun Home orchestra* ensure grade-A backup throughout.

Mark Mackenzie has done his accustomed fine work transforming Chuck Ketter’s abstract The Bodyguard set to fit Fun Home’s multiple locales. Caleb Shiba’s vivid, varied lighting, Jeannete Capuano’s period costumes (with special snaps for her “Raincoat Of Love” fantasy wear), Kirklyn Robinson’s character/era-defining wig and hair designs, Jack Freedman’s big bunch of props, and Nick Galvan’s well-modulated sound design merit their own kudos as well.

Hope Kaufman is assistant director. Mia Mercado is stage manager. Bobby Collins is production manager.

Like Rent, Next To Normal, and Dear Evan Hansen before and since, Fun Home tackles serious issues with humor and humanity. Fortunate indeed were those musical theater lovers who got to savor its all too brief regional debut.

*Stephan Cardenas, Brian Kukan, Mari Mizutani, Alan Waddington, Max Wagner, Oliver Walton

Inland Valley Repertory Theatre at Candlelight Pavilion, 455 W. Foothill Blvd., Claremont.
www.IVRT.org

–Steven Stanley
September 18, 2019
Photos: DawnEllen Ferry
 

Tags: Alison Bechdel, Inland Valley Repertory Theatre, Jeanine Tesori, Lisa Kron, Los Angeles Theater Review