River & Rail Theatre Company’s impactful new production, the musical Fun Home, opened last week at the Old City Performing Arts Center at 111 State Street to a sold-out crowd.
Based on Alison Bechdel’s autobiographical graphic novel of the same name, and featuring a music score by Jeanine Tesori and book/lyrics by Lisa Kron, Fun Home is the story of a girl’s relationship with her father over the years as she pieces together an awareness of her own sexuality and confronts the reality of her bittersweet relationship with her father.
Vicki, Laura Beth and Buddy Wells
Kron’s largely non-linear narrative flows freely between three periods in Alison’s life, narrated by the adult Alison (Laura Beth Wells), but each period portrayed by a different actor and each touching on different familial circumstances that come together like puzzle pieces.
Vickie Wells is the proud mother and grandmother to Laura Beth Wells and Lillian Wells Crawford and has reviews to share about each. “I love watching Laura Beth get into her characters! She has been doing theater since she was 9 years old and she still amazes me! “She says of Lily, “Lily did a great job, too! I’m still trying to process it all!”
Multiple audience members, said the production was “incredible.” “I felt like parts of my own life were being played out onstage,” said audience member April Estes.
Although Fun Home continues through June 18, on Friday, June 16, there will be a “Post-Show and Cocktails” event with mental health professionals.
(Be advised to read the content warnings. Directions and ticket info: Fun Home
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