FUN HOME is Coming to Cain Park This Week

Cain Park's presentation of the hit Broadway musical FUN HOME from August 10–27 will be the first Cleveland-based production of the 2015 Tony winner for Best Musical.

FUN HOME was adapted from Oberlin alum Alison Bechdel's autobiographical graphic novel of the same name, which was a 2006 Pulitzer Prize finalist.

FUN HOME, the musical, is, by turn, achingly funny and intimately revealing. It examines the relationship between Alison and her father, Bruce Bechdel (Scott Esposito), a funeral home director and English teacher who lived a secretive life as a closeted gay man.

Following her father's death, “Alison” (played by Tasha Brandt) presents vignettes of her life as she tries to understand her father and herself better. As a ten-year-old living in her family's small-town Pennsylvania home during the 1970s, “Small Alison” (Juliana Shumaker) sifts through her memories to find a happy family episode in the “fun home,” the nickname she and her brothers gave to the funeral home where they lived. “Medium Alison” (Gabi Ilg) experiences her sexual awakening as a lesbian while attending Oberlin College and recounts the consequences of coming out to her parents.

"The musical is part memory play and part mystery," says FUN HOME Director and Cain Park Artistic Director Joanna May Cullinan. "Alison has all of these unanswered questions about her father so she digs into her past to discover the truth about him and their relationship. Through sketching these moments in time, she finds a way to honor him."

“There's a lot of serious material, but it's also a lot of fun,” Cullinan adds.

FUN HOME has deep connections to Northeast Ohio. The scenes during Bechdel's university years took place at Oberlin College. Following its run on Broadway—where it was nominated for a dozen Tony Awards and won five—FUN HOME launched a year-long national tour from Cleveland in October 2016.

Now, the first Cleveland-based production of FUN HOME is led by an all-woman creative team at Cain Park, with Cullinan as Director, Cleveland Heights resident Rachel Woods as Music Director, and Monica Olejko as Choreographer.

“I feel very strongly in theater and musical theater there are a lot of stories to be told and this was told from the perspective of someone not seen before,” Cullinan said. “There have been other musicals with gay themes but not with these family dynamics. It's a great show for young adults to take their parents to if they want their parents to understand them a bit more.”

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