Alison times three: Libby Greenhill, left, Hattie Wells and Claire Morley in the Fulford Social Hall rehearsal room for Pick Me Up Theatre’s Fun Home. Picture: Kevin Greenhill
PICK Me Up Theatre’s York premiere of Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron’s award-garlanded musical Fun Home opens at the York Medical Society, Stonegate, on September 10.
Director-designer Robert Readman was thrilled when the rights became available. “I jumped at the chance to produce this amazing Broadway musical – it’s such a moving and unusual story and I love the score and the book,” he says.
“It’s a remarkable show that won Tony awards for best musical, score, book, leading actor and direction, and we’re very lucky to have such a magnificent, tight cast to bring to life Alison Bechdel’s best-selling graphic novel, based on her own life. And I feel the atmospheric, very intimate venue of the York Medical Society will work so well for our production.” Please note, the seating capacity is only 40, so prompt booking is advised.
First staged in the UK at the Young Vic in London in 2018, but yet to play the West End, Fun Home now makes its Yorkshire debut with its story of Alison at three stages of her life as memories of her 1970s’ childhood in a funeral home merge with her college love life and her coming out.
Claire Morley in rehearsal for Fun Home. Picture: Kevin Greenhill
When her father dies unexpectedly, graphic novelist Alison dives deep into her past to recall the volatile, brilliant, one-of-a-kind man whose temperament and secrets defined her family and her life. Moving between past and present, Alison relives her unique childhood at the family’s Bechdel Funeral Home, her growing understanding of her own sexuality and the looming, unanswerable questions about her father’s hidden desires.
“Fun Home is a refreshingly honest, wholly original musical about seeing your parents through grown-up eyes as Alison looks back on her complex relationship with her father and finds they had more in common than she ever knew,” says Robert.
Readman’s cast will be led by Claire Morley as adult Alison, aged 43, Libby Greenhill as Medium Alison, aged 19, and Hattie Wells as Young Alison, aged nine, joined by Catherine Foster as Helen, Alison’s mother, Dale Vaughan as Bruce, Alison’s father, Teddy Alexander as John, Oliver Smith as Christian, Britney Brett as Joan and the multi-role-playing Cain Branton as JRoy/Pete/Mark/Bobby.
“Fun Home is one of those cult musicals where if you know it, you rave about it,” says Claire, who is performing in her first musical since playing a Ronette in Little Shop Of Horrors in her All Saints schooldays. “If you don’t know the show but come next week, I’m hoping it will become some people’s favourite musical.
Libby Greenhill’s Medium Alison: “Some of her scenes about self-identity and discovering she’s a lesbian are quite funny,” she says. Picture: Kevin Greenhill
“I’ve known about the show for some time, though I’ve never seen it, but I love the songs. I’ve used Maps for auditions and Changing My Major (Libby’s solo in our show), at drama school, and when I saw Pick Me Up Theatre were doing it, I thought ‘this is my chance’.”
Libby, 16, who is studying for A-levels in Classical Civilisation, Religious Studies and English Language (“my passion”), was the first to be cast by Readman in December. All Saints pupil Hattie followed later that month, picked while starring in Pick Me Up’s Oliver!, when appearing in Fagin’s gang alongside her mother Rhian’s Mrs Sowerberry.
Looking ahead, Hattie, aged 11, has been cast as one of two Annies in York Light Opera Company’s production of Annie at York Theatre Royal next February.
Claire’s Alison will be omnipresent on stage. “Her memories make these characters emerge from her past. In one song, I sing that she’s 43, a similar age to when her father committed suicide, and so throughout the show she’s looking back on her life, her teenage days and childhood, and her relationship with her father.”
Young Alison actress Hattie Wells singing in the Fulford Social Hall rehearsal room. Picture: Kevin Greenhill
Libby says: “The musical is based on Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel, where she’s looking back over her memories, switching between 19-year-old Alison, in her first year at college in Pennsylvania, and 11-year-old Alison, and there’s no dragging in this show. It’s very immersive, about one hour 40 minutes long, so there’s no interval.”
Claire says: “The show builds to this dramatic event, so if it had an interval, it would break the momentum, and staging it in the round with the audience on all sides will benefit the show too.”
Hattie has found herself growing into the role. “It felt weird at first because things didn’t all make sense to me, and it seemed quite strange, especially when Bruce [the father] is really angry, when it’s very scary as Dale [Vaughan] is really good at being angry,” she says. “It’s helped to watch clips on YouTube and to work with Robert in rehearsals.”
Libby stresses that Fun Home is not a dark comedy but has elements of both. “There are dark things with the father, and then, in some of Medium Alison’s scenes about self-identity and discovering she’s a lesbian, they’re quite funny,” she says.
“Ultimately it’s life-affirming as Alison tries to work out how to move on while reconciling herself with how she was emotionally manipulated,” says Claire. “I think everyone who comes to the show will recognise something from their own lives, although it’s very specifically one person’s memories – and it’s definitely not all doom and gloom. It’s a good musical where people will come up with differing interpretations.”
The three Alisons will be seldom seen on stage together. “There’s only one moment where we acknowledge each other,” says Hattie.
Pick Me Up Theatre in Fun Home, York Medical Society, Stonegate, York, September 10 to 19, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday and Sunday matinees. Content guidance: Themes of LGBTQ+, suicide and strong language. Parental guidance: 12 plus. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk/pickmeuptheatre.com.
Pick Me Up Theatre’s show poster for Fun Home at York Medical Society
