(Above: Featured actors in Oregon Contemporary Theatre’s production of Fun Home are, left to right, Brian Haimbach as Bruce Bechdel; Hannah Oristano as the “small” Alison Bechdel; and Allison Mickelson as the adult Alison Bechdel)

By Randi Bjornstad

Craig Willis, artistic director at Oregon Contemporary Theatre, said he “knew pretty much from the first time I saw it that I wanted to bring Fun Home here to OCT.”

It took several years for that to happen, “because they wanted to take the show to Broadway first, so we had to wait,” Willis said. “Then, we had a chance to bring it here last spring, but we already had our season  set. So we decided to open this season with it.”

But first, it’s important to distinguish between Allison and Alison when it comes to this musical.

Alison Bechdel is a cartoonist who created a long-running comic strip called Dykes to Watch Out For, and then in 2006 she wrote an autobiographical graphic novel called Fun Home.

The graphic novel, adapted as a musical by Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori, won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, in 2015.

Then came Allison Mickelson, who is an award-winning actor in her own right, frequently taking her parts on the road on national or regional performance tours.

Allison Mickelson, a New York City actress, has made the role of Alison Bechdel her own; she performs the part in OCT’s production of “Fun Home”

In fact, last year Mickelson won Broadway World’s award for Best Actress in a Regional Musical for her role in Fun Home at Portland Center Stage. She also has appeared in productions of Elf and Mame.

“I met Allison Mickelson in Portland last spring when she was doing another Lisa Kron show, and I asked if she would come here and do Fun Home with us, and she said she would,” Willis said. “She is just an amazing actor, and in this play she has an amazing empathy with her character’s struggle. She also is a talented vocalist, so she is perfect for this part.”

The part of Alison Bechdel as a very young girl is played by local youth actor Hannah Oristano. Brian Haimbach takes the part of Alison’s father, Bruce Bechdel. Lindsey Esche is “medium” Alison. Additional actors are Cash Creech, Jo Meyer, Tracy Nygard, Benjamin Sanders, and Brianna Soumokil.

When she is not on the road with a tour, Mickelson makes her home in New York City, where like most actors she cobbles together a living that allows her freedom to audition and perform.

“When not on the boards,” Mickelson’s website says, “Allison makes her home in New York City and can be found teaching music and yoga, conducting choirs, or teaching art and working on social justice issues for Middle Collegiate Church, a progressive worshiping community in the East Village.”

Brian Haimbach plays the father, Bruce Bechdel, in OCT’s “Fun Home”

The story line of Fun Home centers around father Bruce Bechdel and his daughter Alison during her girlhood in rural Pennsylvania. Her father was a funeral director and teacher whose manner ranged from cold disregard to abusive rage and who also was a closeted gay man who nonetheless had sexual relationships with students and others.

Two weeks after his wife asked for a divorce, Bechdel stepped into the path of a delivery truck and was killed, which his daughter concluded was not an accident.

Her own life and relationship with her parents had been complicated by her realization that she was lesbian and her coming out to them, even as she explored her own youthful relationships.

The story line, or book, of Fun Home is the work of Kron, with Tesori creating the music.

“Jeanine Tesori is very much influenced by Stephen Sondheim’s work,” Willis said. “It’s very melodic at times and atonal in other parts as it reflects the emotions and actions of the story. I think this show is really remarkable.”

Fun Home

When: Pay-what-you-can preview performances at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 19-20; regular 7:30 p.m. performances on Sept. 21-22, 27-29, Oct. 4-6 and 11-13; and 2 p.m. matinees on Sept. 30 and Oct. 7

Where: Oregon Contemporary Theatre, 194 W. Broadway, Eugene

Tickets: $20 to $42; $15 for students with valid ID (except opening night on Sept. 21); available at the box office, 541-465-1506, or online at octheatre.org

OCT 2018-2019 Season

  • Fun Home  — Sept. 19 to Oct. 13
  • At Home at the Zoo — Oct. 26 to Nov. 11
  • Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley — Nov. 30 to Dec. 16
  • The Understudy — Jan. 18 to Feb. 3
  • Damascus — March 29 to April 14
  • Good People — May 17 to June 2