Magnificent to mind- boggling: ‘Fun Home’ and ‘La Soiree’

The word family should bring visions of warmth and comfort — but from Shakespeare’s time to Samuel Beckett’s to today’s new theater a quartet of mesmerizing new plays that put a scalding spotlight on family relationships — quite the opposite may be the fraught truth. This season is so far blessed with a quartet of new plays that highlight the truth of family relationships — with reviews to come, it’s a must to put Bruce Norris’ “Domesticated” (Lincoln Center), Beth Henley’s provocative, black-humored “The Jacksonians “ (New Group on Theater Row) and Samuel Beckett’s gripping “All That Fall” with huge performances by veterans Eileen Atkins and Michael Gambon on your “must see” theatergoing. The latter’s haunting, never before seen here ”Radio Play” is not only brilliant Beckett but a primer on what moving, magnificent acting is all about (59E.59 Theaters). Each of the above draws us into relatively recent or contemporary times to make the stinging point that each of us becomes the sum of those formative “growing” years; that understanding why we became the adults we are doesn’t always bring the ability to forgive — and rarely to forget our past: whether we chose life paths born of — on in rebellion against the state of one’s “family nest.”

A shattering ‘Fun Home’
Lisa Kron (book and lyrics) and Jeanine Tesori’s (music) haunting “Fun Home” currently extended at the Public Theater is a mesmerizing musical exploration of a childhood finally deciphered in the recollections of Alison Bechdel, an adult cartoon artist looking to solve possible reasons why her long dead father committed suicide —and how and to what extend it affected her own choices as a teen and then adult. Growing up in an ordered, tightly controlled home with a dad, Bruce, whose dual occupations as an English teacher and funeral home director is an extension of the play’s title — and his avocation as a collector and endless restorer of the gleaming artifacts that fill the family’s Victorian home. Alison (played by three actresses at different stages of her life) is in her 40s before she comes to explore her own life choices as a lesbian. Does it matter if there was a “why?
Beth Malone (adult Alison), Alexandra Socha and Sydney Lucas (the youngest Alison) are superb in their roles, as is Judy Kuhn as daddy Bruce’s long enduring wife. But it’s Michael Cerveris as the conflicted closeted homosexual father — who cannot escape his longings and suffers the guilt of acting on them — whom is playwright Kron’s (based on Alison Becdel’s book) most affecting creation. Alternately sternly fatherly, torn by moments of uncontrollable lust, he seem angrily abstracted from his family — even while controlling their lives.

Jeanine Tesori’s score perfectly captures the family’s longing for harmony and the impossibility, given the circumstances, of ever achieving that rich reward. And, as Alison’s cartoon memoir reveals her father’s tortured life, Tesori’s music for his volatility is the most piercing of her score. Into adulthood we are all, I believe, very much affected by revelations that turn up from family members and our own perspective that change our own perception of seminal events in our earlier years. “Fun Home” will have you thinking and thinking and wondering anew. It belongs on a Broadway stage, well ready in 2013 for its subject matter. Final kudos for Sam Gold’s flawless direction, David Ziinn’s sets and costumes and Jim Findlay and Jeff Suggs evocative projections (425 Lafayette St., 212-967-7555)
Are you ready for ‘La Soiree?’
“La Soiree,” which left our cheering audience rocking on our feet at the Union Square Theatre this past week is above all a class act. Don’t bring the kids, please, but make a beeline to this best of all possible entertainments that combines burlesque, vaudeville, a dazzling sideshow — and mind-boggling, catch-your-breath feats of dazzling dexterity, balance and juggling by elegantly garbed acrobats, and a bevy of sexy singing strippers. With a smattering of nudity, six-packed male contortionists in tight wet jeans to gaze upon, and a sing –and-sway finale (to the theme song from “Queen”) that was the culmination of two-plus fly-by hours of gleeful audience participation, “La Soiree” is glorious feel-good glam. So you’ll want to bring along a bevy of friends to share in this at once genteel and gaudy display of daring and ripe risqué humor. Who wouldn’t clamor to escape to a world where the impossible is just part of a night’s work and play by “La Soiree!”
Hats (and anything else you chose) off to producers Brett Haylock, Mark Rubenstein and Mark Perren and their sparkling cast of 25 artistes for the gift of an evening where a small red stage, surrounded by the audience on all four sides, becomes a serendipitous sanctuary from the woes of the world! I’ll toast to that (champagne available) and to the endlessly entertaining “La Soiree”
(Union Square Theatre, 100 East 17th Street. Tickets at ticketmaster.com. Seating is unreserved so plan to come early.