Fun Home Reviews
Los Angeles Times- Recommended
"...Director Marya Mazor expertly builds the family's mini-dramas toward their powerful resolution while artfully deploying the cast of nine (which includes two more incredible youngsters: Reese Hewitt and Christopher Patow) around Bradley Kaye's spare yet encompassing set. The audience is seated in two sections that face each other, much like the Broadway in-the-round staging, which enhances the you-are-there feeling. From a screened-off alcove, Lex Leigh, at his synthesizer, leads a band of four."
Stage and Cinema- Recommended
"...Fun Home tackles with devastating contrast the social realities facing gay Americans across generations. And while it's by no means a complete reflection of the gay experience, the work's personal, biographical truths reveal with brutal honesty how such social change can quite literally mean the taking of life or the giving of it. (The fun or the funeral.) In experiencing such a work, we allow queer voices to be heard from either side of fate reminding us of the power society wields in shaping our own destinies. So step inside. While it certainly doesn't live up to the large-scale national tour that swept through the Ahmanson three years ago, even with its cracks, this lil' Home's worth a night's visit."
Stage Scene LA- Highly Recommended
"...Chance Theater's expansive yet intimate Cripe Stage proves the ideal setting for Fun Home, Alison Bechdel's graphic memoir-turned-Tony-winning musical saga of a young lesbian's coming of age, coming out, and coming to grips with love and loss."
OC Register- Highly Recommended
"...Director Marya Mazor capitalizes on our proximity. Anecdotal scenes mostly occupy small chunks space. But she re-energizes the environment by having up-tempo numbers range along its the length (a very capable four-piece live ensemble of keyboard, cello, bass and drums is hidden behind a screen at one end of the stage)."
Peoples World- Highly Recommended
"...Another aspect of the book that I was able to appreciate more viscerally the second time around is the theme of flying that starts off with Small Alison balanced on her father's feet up in the air, her arms in airplane mode, and returns in different iterations throughout the musical. The very last line of the show, signifying her ability as a grown woman to overcome her earlier traumas, is a terse caption loaded with portent: "Every so often there was a moment of perfect balance when I soared above him.""