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PREVIEW: The Look of Fun Home (Hennepin Theatre Trust)

by Twin Cities Arts Reader -

The National Tour Company of Fun Home. Photo by Joan Marcus.

Nipping right at the heels of the 2015 Tony Award Winner for Best Play is the 2015 Tony Award Winner for Best Musical: Fun Home. This musical has an unusual origin: it’s an adaptation of a graphic novel-memoir by a famous cartoonist, Alison Bechdel. Many strips from Bechdel’s groundbreaking, nationally syndicated cartoon strip Dykes to Watch Out For were written while Bechdel was living in St. Paul, MN, including the strips that introduced the now infamous Bechdel Test. Bechdel herself earned a 2014 MacArthur Genius Award; Fun Home is her autobiographical memoir of coming out as a lesbian. The source graphic novel was named one of the best books of 2006 by the New York Times, Salon, Time, and others.

Here’s a look at the award-winning musical adaptation of Fun Home that opens at the Orpheum Theatre on Tuesday, 12/13. All photos by Joan Marcus:

The National Tour Company of Fun Home. Photo by Joan Marcus.
The National Tour Company of Fun Home.
Alessandra Baldacchino as Small Alison with Kate Shindle (background) as Alison in Fun Home. Photo by Joan Marcus.
Alessandra Baldacchino plays Small Alison, with Kate Shindle (background) as her adult Alison counterpart.
Kate Shindle as Alison and Robert Petkoff as Bruce in Fun Home. Photo by Joan Marcus.
Kate Shindle as Alison and Robert Petkoff as Alison’s closeted father Bruce.
Susan Moniz as Helen in Fun Home. Photo by Joan Marcus.
Susan Moniz plays Alison’s mother Helen Bechdel.
Alessandra Baldacchino as Small Alison, Pierson Salvador as Christian, and Lennon Nate Hammond as John Fun Home. Photo by Joan Marcus.
Salon‘s Mark Kennedy singled out the song “Come to the Fun Home,” set around a coffin, as “one of many highlights in a fresh musical that seems like an impossible sell on Broadway but hooks you instantly with its honesty and beauty.” Alessandra Baldacchino as Small Alison, Pierson Salvador as Christian, and Lennon Nate Hammond as John Fun Home. Photo by Joan Marcus.
Alessandra Baldacchino as Small Alison and Robert Petkoff as Bruce in Fun Home. Photo by Joan Marcus.
Airplane time. Alessandra Baldacchino as Small Alison and Robert Petkoff as Bruce in Fun Home. 
Kate Shindle as Alison in Fun Home. Photo by Joan Marcus.
Alison (Kate Shindle) sets to work in Fun Home.
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