Review: Burlington Players’ “Fun Home” Shines with Emotional Depth and Standout Performances

Nearly everyone, growing up, thinks their family is strange, but Alison Bechdel’s family was certainly stranger than many.

Fun Home, presented by The Burlington Players, is a Tony Award-winning musical based on Bechdel's graphic memoir that tells a complex story of young woman growing up in a doubly unusual home: her family runs a funeral home, and her father, as it turns out, is a closeted gay man.

Throughout the play, the central character, Alison, is portrayed at three ages: at about 10 years old, in college, and as an adult. The adult Alison spends much of her time on stage observing the events, commenting to the audience, and running to her studio to cartoon what she sees.

This production is powerful, and all the actors are fully engaged in their roles.

Three kids play the children, little Alison plus a brother and a sister. These three do a musical number where they invent a musical commercial for the family funeral home, and this number, near the beginning, is sweet, adorable, and our opening night audience went crazy for it. All three of the kids are great actors AND singers.

The college age Alison, known as Medium Alison, is played by Bella Juhari, and she does a terrific job showing us the enormous vulnerability of coming out as gay, and engaging as such, for the first time. She has great moments both acting and singing. For many people, her poignant experience may echo their own, regardless of their sexual orientation. This medium Alison falls deeply in love with Joan, played well by Bee LaPlaca.

The adult Alison, played by Ari Schmidt, is elegant and effective, observing the action from the side and sometimes narrating for us. Ari’s stage presence is compelling as their character goes from peripheral to central and back to center stage.

Adam Sell plays the father and does a fine job of giving us a man who is warm and connected to his children while hiding another life. His wife is played by Lydian Devere Yard, who takes the long suffering wife part and makes it real, both in her acting and singing.

We went home and listened to some of the Tony Award winning Broadway cast album of Fun Home and were struck that the Burlington singers, to our ears, compared well to Broadway – at moments, they sounded better!

And speaking of music, one of the magical aspects of a musical is that there are live musicians (backstage) playing the music, and here the sounds of live reeds and violin and piano are really sweet to the ears, with the band so well conducted by Samantha Prindiville. The actors were not aided by microphones, which is a benefit: it means that when somebody moves, their voice follows. As in nearly every musical production, it can be hard to hear the singers at times over the music. If your hearing is not ideal, get there early and sit in the front rows.

The play was directed by Shira Helena Gitlin, who melded all the complex scenes and emotions into a coherent, compelling production, getting great performances from everyone – including the little ones.

The set, designed by David Fisher, was a strong part of the production and featured many engaging cartoons by local artist Al Benbow. During the play, many set pieces, including a couch and even a coffin, are wheeled in and out by the actors themselves, which they handled with graceful efficiency.

Community theater delivers something very special that Broadway can’t touch: You are so close, you can imagine you're a part of the action. You can really see and hear the actors. And the actors and crew are not here for money, but purely for the love of theater. So when a community theater production works, which Fun Home certainly does, the experience is enjoyable, powerful, and memorable.