Review - Fun Home - Manchester Royal Exchange

The UK Regional Premiere production of Fun Home has opened at Manchester’s Royal Exchange, and it is hard to imagine a better place (or time) for it to receive this much anticipated revival.

Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir on which the musical is based continues to find itself banned from libraries in parts of America, and the waves of vitriol that appeared again across social media throughout June in response to posts about Pride Month show that stories like this one are very much in need of retelling.

Manchester is a city that very openly embraces diversity, and the Royal Exchange stage feels a perfect fit for this intimate, searching exploration of family, friendship and finding indentity. Director Sarah Frankcom (back in the venue where she was formerly Artistic Director) and designer Peter Butler reflect in their programme note that the work was originally produced Off Broadway at the Circle in the Square, so returning to a stage that presents it completely in-the-round feels like a homecoming in itself, during the Exchange’s own 50th anniversary ‘Homecoming’ season.

The story, with its book written for the stage by Lisa Kron, is at once simple yet complex. Sketching out scenes at her desk, cartoonist Alison Bechdel reflects back on her childhood, on the awkward relationships between herself and her parents, on her coming out at university, and on her father’s apparent suicide. Alison is played by three actors, one in the present day, one in her university years, and another as a young child, allowing for some moving duets or even trios with herself, as her three ages often appear in multiple iterations on stage at once.

Jodie McNee is older Alison, and she holds the piece together as a constant onstage presence. She delivers a beautifully sensitive performance, maintaining a constant narrative with her facial and physical gestures even when she has no actual lines. Alice Audrey O’Hanlon is a splendid vocal and physical match for McNee as ‘Medium Alison’, and brings us some beautiful scenes both at university opposite Joan – played with equal subtlety by Natasha Cottriall, and when sparring with her parents.

Alex Young and and Nigel Harman are the brittle mother Helen and the conflicted father, Bruce, while the adult cast is completed by Lucca Chadwick Patel, who slips seamlessly between four roles including Roy, who Bruce seduces whilst his wife is playing piano in the next room.

Jeanine Tesori’s score is almost entirely sung-through, with the songs emerging out of dialogue. The title number ‘Fun Home’ is introduced by the three Bechdel children, Alison and her brothers John and Christian. The phrase is the Bechdel’s affectionate name for the family business – a funeral home – and the children sing this in the form of a light hearted advertisement that calls to mind ‘May We Entertain You’ from Gypsy. The children are played at alternate performances by three teams of young actors, and on this occasion they were taken by Felicity Moore as Small Alison, Reggie Kempson as John and Morris McKinley as Christian. Their trio, sung whilst playing in and around an open casket, is a showstopper, and they bring huge assurance and stagecraft to the roles. It is worth mentioning here that McKinley is making his professional debut in this production.

Peter Butler’s stage design focuses our attention on the performances and the dialogue, with judicial use of a small number of carefully chosen stage props, chief of which are Alison’s drawing desk and a grand piano, but which also include small items that are crucially referenced in the text. The bulk of the physical set is a tangled bird’s nest of scribbled lines and lamps suspended above, which occasionally join in with the storytelling with the aid of Bethany Gupwell’s subtle lighting. Below, the stage includes a donut revolve that allows for gentle movement on stage and aids the swift and seamless blending between scenes.

It never ceases to amaze just how clever the Royal Exchange production team have become in dealing with the music in shows like this. Here a small part of the band, with musical director Yshani Perinpanayagam at the keyboard, are present in the auditorium at first tier level. The rest of them are in a booth outside, and all the music is delivered via a sound system with sound design by Tony Gayle, and it is impossible to overstate how much of an impact the impeccable balance between music and voices makes. Every syllable, even in complex passages with overlapping lines, is crisply audible throughout.

Frankcom directs with her characteristic flair for juggling multiple narrative threads and keeping the emotional temperature at just the right level. This is a story with tremendous soul searching and heartbreak, but beautiful touches of warmth and humour, and all of this is made to work without ever becoming over sentimental.

This is a very compelling 100 minutes of musical theatre that, despite its emotional subject matter, succeeds in lifting the spirits.

Fun Home plays at the Royal Exchange theatre in Manchester until 1st August.

Star Rating: Five stars

Jodie McNee as Alison in Fun Home - Picture by Johan Persson

This review was originally written for and published by Musical Theatre Review