Review: They’re putting the fun in funeral at Theater Latté Da

You can tell that Theater Latté Da’s “Fun Home” is rooted in celebration by the fifth song in, which also happens to be the production’s first showstopper.

That’s when the trio of Bechdel children — John, Christian and Small Alison — start to rehearse a commercial for their family’s funeral parlor. Hamming it up with effusive charm, Brock Heuring, Truman Bednar and Eve Scharback deliver a giddily energetic “Come to the Fun Home,” calling out the special qualities of the family business: “You know our mourners / So satisfied / They like, they like, they like.../ Our formaldehyde!”

OK, that’s a hard sell. But the kids pull it off with sock-it-to-me dance moves, including hand rolls and hip dips that are an homage to the Jackson 5 (Katie Rose McLaughlin and Joey Miller choreographed the dances, while pianist Jason Hansen conducts the entertaining band).

The delight of that number makes it clear that while the Jeanine Tesori-Lisa Kron musical is about a gay character’s fraught coming of age even as her family falls apart, it’s all undergirded by hard-won joy.

Director Addie Gorlin-Han has the right touch for this 90-minute, one-act show based on Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir. Gorlin-Han does not shy away from the difficult elements in the story. Lighting designer Alice Trent also embraces darkness, often bringing the action to a quieting, pinpoint spotlight.

But after arresting our breath in musical numbers, the director often guides the action to a bright, often victorious exhale.

“Fun Home” takes place in and around the Bechdel home, a stop on the Beech Creek, Pa., house tour circuit that the kids describe as a museum. Eli Sherlock’s impressive set, with a background of stately shelves for furniture, props and tchotchkes acquired over years, makes it look more like an estate being readied for sale.

And that’s apt. For while the father in the family — teacher, funeral director and serial house rehabber Bruce (Shad Hanley) — is always taking on projects, the trajectory of the story is one of deconstruction for him but building for his daughter.

What’s surprising is that “Fun Home” is as much about Alison’s ascent, if you will, as it is about her father’s downward spiral. Caught in a dead end of his own frustrations, risky behavior and lies, he lashes out at wife Helen (Ann Michels), who, through astute direction, is often physically and psychically worlds away.

“Fun Home” uses a trio of Alisons to tell its narrative. Besides Scharback’s Small Alison, there’s the plain Alison, played by Sara Masterson, the older cartoonist who sketches her story and provides captions for the chapters of her lives as her memories unfold before us.

Medium Alison (Monty Hays) begins to discover her sexuality even as she seeks validation and help from a mother who is in a kind of grief and a father who cannot see past his need for control.

Gorlin-Han has a beautifully capable cast, with the three Alisons often bringing smiles to our faces. Scharback’s appeal goes beyond cuteness. She shows her developing character’s strength and chutzpah as well as her sensitivity.

Hays plays my favorite of the Alisons, and that’s because the character is in an exclamatory phase of discovery, and Hays plays it with relish. The number “Changing My Major,” about Alison’s falling in love for the first time with Joan (a chill Emma Schuld), is another highwater mark for the show.

Mature Alison, who narrates “Fun Home,” is the most dispassionate of the three — she’s looking back, after all — but Masterson makes the role coolly compelling. And Masterson’s and Hanley’s duet, “Telephone Wire,” is a heartbreaking highlight.

In fact, it’s the performances all the way up and down that make “Fun Home” a winner. Even if Bruce is a troubling, tortured figure, Hanley, who last excelled as one of the principals of Chanhassen Dinner Theatre’s “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” is showing his range here, making us lean in to hear more. That’s true of “Edges of the World,” his song that’s ostensibly about the one place where he finds uncomplicated bliss, and where he can offer what passes for an honest explanation to his daughter: “Dear Al, I’m scared / I had a life I thought I understood / I took it and I squeezed out every bit of life I could.”

For her part, Helen is neglected by her husband and the story, but Michels makes us care. On “Days and Days,” a number about trying to keep a perfect home, she starts with a capella lines of exquisite beauty laced with heartbreak and pain.

While neither of Alison’s parents could give her what she needed, they did provide a foundation, however troubled, that helped her to find her own way. Bruce, in particular, would often play airplane with his daughter, lying on his back on the floor and balancing her on his feet while she stretched her arms like wings.

That image, with its promise of play and freedom, is emblematic not only of Alison’s journey, but of the show, as well. For quite simply, this “Fun Home” soars.

When: 7:30 p.m. Wed.-Fri., 2 & 7:30 p.m. Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. Ends May 4.

Where: Ritz Theater, 345 13th Av. NE., Mpls.

Tickets: $41.75-$95.75. 612-339-3003 or latteda.org.