Porchlight Music Theatre is proud to announce Fun Home: Behind the Show Backstory with Artistic Director Michael Weber, Tuesday, Dec. 10 at 7 p.m. at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn St. Weber hosts this multimedia presentation about the Tony-award winning and Pulitzer Prize-nominated musical Fun Home and includes the history of Fun Home, insights into the production, fun facts and guest performances from cast members Neala Barron, Z Mowry and Tessa Pundsack. Tickets are pay-what-you-can with a suggested donation of $25 and reservations may be made at PorchlightMusicTheatre.org.
Winner of seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical and a Pulitzer finalist, Fun Home is a refreshingly honest, emotional and revolutionary musical. Based on Alison Bechdel’s critically acclaimed graphic novel with a score from Jeanine Tesori, Fun Home shares how Bechdel unlocks memories, milestones and mysteries of her youth as she begins to write her first graphic novel. With a compassionate score and a brilliant script, Fun Home tells the story of seeing your parents through grown-up eyes.
ABOUT PORCHLIGHT’S FUN HOME
January 16 - March 2, 2025
Music by Jeanine Tesori
Book and lyrics by Lisa Kron
Based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel
Directed by Stephen Schellhardt
Music Directed by Heidi Joosten
Previews: Thursday, Jan. 16 - Friday, Jan. 17 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, Jan. 18 at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Press Opening: Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025 at 6 p.m.
Performance Schedule: Thursdays - Fridays at 7:30 p.m.. Saturdays at 3 and 7 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. with additional performances Thursday, Jan. 23 at 2 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 30 at 2 p.m., Wednesday, Feb 5 at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Feb 12 at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Feb 19 at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Feb 26 at 7:30 p.m.
Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn St.
Tickets: $20 - $85
CONTENT ADVISORY: verbal abuse, depictions of homophobia and a death by suicide as well as allusions to sexual contact between an adult and teenagers.
ABOUT PORCHLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE
Porchlight Music Theatre, entering its 30th season, is the award-winning center for music theatre in Chicago. Through live performance, youth education and community outreach, we impact thousands of lives each season, bringing the magic of musicals to our theatre home at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts in the Gold Coast and to neighborhoods across the city. Porchlight has built a national reputation for boldly reimagining classic musicals, supporting new works and young performers, and showcasing Chicago’s most notable music theatre artists, all through the intimate and powerful theatrical lens of the “Chicago Style.”
Porchlight's history over nearly three decades includes more than 70 mainstage works with 15 Chicago premieres and five world premieres.
Porchlight's education and outreach programs serve schools, youth of all ages and skill levels and community organizations. Porchlight annually awards dozens of full scholarships and hundreds of free tickets to ensure accessibility and real engagement with this uniquely American art form.
The company’s many honors include 178 Joseph Jefferson Award (Jeff) nominations and 50 Jeff awards, as well as 44 Black Theatre Alliance (BTA) nominations and 15 BTA awards. In 2019, Porchlight graduated to the Large Theatre tier of the Equity Jeff Awards and has been honored with seven awards in this tier to date including Best Ensemble for Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies (2019) and Best Production-Revue for Blues in the Night (2022).
Through the global pandemic, Porchlight emerged as one of Chicago’s leaders in virtual programming, quickly launching a host of free offerings like Sondheim @ 90 Roundtables, Movie Musical Mondays, Porchlight by Request: Command Performances and WPMT: Classic Musicals from the Golden Age of Radio. In 2021, Porchlight launched its annual summer series, Broadway in your Backyard, performing at parks and venues throughout the city.
The 30th Anniversary Season is Sponsored By Elaine Cohen & Arlen Rubin and Brenda & Jim Grusecki
Porchlight Music Theatre is partially supported by generous contributions from Actors’ Equity Foundation; Allstate; Comcast/Xfinity; Cliff Dwellers Arts Foundation; Free for All; Glimpse Vision; James P. and Brenda S. Grusecki Family Foundation; Hearty Boys; the Pritzker Traubert Foundation; Ryan and Spaeth, Inc.; Daniel and Genevieve Ratner Foundation; The Saints; Dr. Scholl Foundation; Service Club of Chicago and The Shubert Foundation.
The season program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, a state agency, and by a CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events.
Porchlight Music Theatre wishes to thank members of the Matching Gift Corporate Program including Allstate; BDO; Google; Jackson National Life Insurance; Lloyd A. Fry Foundation and The Saints.
Fun Home Information:
Porchlight Music Theatre presents
Fun Home
January 16 - March 2, 2025
Music by Jeanine Tesori
Book and lyrics by Lisa Kron
Based on the Graphic Novel by Alison Bechdel
Directed by Stephen Schellhardt
Music Directed by Heidi Joosten
Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn St.
Tickets: $20 - $85
Website: PorchlightMusicTheatre.org/fun-home/
- Thursday, Jan. 16 at 7:30 p.m.
- Friday, Jan. 17 at 7:30 p.m.
- Saturday, Jan. 18 at 3 p.m.
- Saturday, Jan. 18 at 7:30 p.m.
- Sunday, Jan. 19 at 2 p.m.
- Sunday, Jan. 19 at 6 p.m. - PRESS OPENING
- Thursday, Jan. 23 at 2p.m.
- Thursday, Jan. 23 at 7:30 p.m.
- Friday, Jan. 24 at 7:30 p.m. - Porchlight Young Professionals Night
- Saturday, Jan. 25 at 3 p.m.
- Saturday, Jan. 25 at 7:30 p.m.
- Sunday, Jan. 26 at 2 p.m.
- Thursday, Jan. 30 at 2 p.m.
- Thursday, Jan. 30 at 7:30p.m.
- Friday, Jan 31 at 7:30 p.m. - Post-Show Discussion
- Saturday, Feb. 1 at 3 p.m.
- Saturday, Feb. 1 at 7:30 p.m.
- Sunday, Feb. 2 at 2 p.m.
- Wednesday, Feb. 5 at 7:30 p.m.
- Thursday, Feb. 6 at 7:30 p.m.
- Friday, Feb. 7 at 7:30 p.m.
- Saturday, Feb. 8 at 3 p.m. - Open Caption Performance
- Saturday, Feb. 8 at 7:30 p.m.
- Sunday, Feb. 9 at 2 p.m.
- Wednesday, Feb. 12 at 7:30 p.m.
- Thursday, Feb. 13 at 7:30 p.m. - Post-Show Discussion
- Friday, Feb. 14 at 7:30 p.m.
- Saturday, Feb. 15 at 3 p.m.
- Saturday, Feb. 15 at 7:30 p.m.
- Sunday, Feb. 16 at 2 p.m.
- Wednesday, Feb. 19 at 7:30 p.m.
- Thursday, Feb. 20 at 7:30 p.m.
- Friday, Feb. 21 at 7:30 p.m.
- Saturday, Feb. 22 at 3 p.m. - Open Caption Performance
- Saturday, Feb. 22 at 7:30 p.m.
- Sunday, Feb. 23 at 2 p.m. - Post-Show Discussion
- Wednesday, Feb. 26 at 7:30 p.m.
- Thursday, Feb. 27 at 7:30 p.m.
- Friday, Feb. 28 at 7:30 p.m.
- Saturday, March 1 at 3 p.m.
- Saturday, March 1 at 7:30 p.m.
- Sunday, March 2 at 2 p.m.
Show dates, post-show discussions, etc. subject to change.
Fun Home: Behind the Show Backstory Performers (L to R) Neala Barron, Z Mowry and Tessa Pundsack
Michael Weber at Anything Goes: Behind the Show Backstory, Nov. 13, 2023. Photo courtesy of Porchlight Music Theatre
PORCHLIGHT UPCOMING EVENTS ...
January 16 – March 2, 2025
Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn St.
Music by Jeanine Tesori
Book and lyrics by Lisa Kron
Based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel
Directed by Stephen Schellhardt
Music Directed by Heidi Joosten
Winner of seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and a Pulitzer finalist, Fun Home is a refreshingly honest, emotional and revolutionary musical. Based on Alison Bechdel’s critically acclaimed graphic novel, Fun Home shares how Bechdel unlocks memories, milestones and mysteries of her youth as she begins to write her first graphic novel. With a compassionate score and a brilliant script, Fun Home tells the story of seeing your parents through grown-up eyes.
Chicago Premiere
Presented in association with Broadway In Chicago
March 25 – May 18, 2025
Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place, 175 E. Chestnut St.
Co-Written by Marla Mindelle, Constantine Rousouli and Tye Blue.
All aboard NYC’s must-sea musical comedy! When the music of Céline Dion makes sweet Canadian love with the eleven-time Oscar®-winning blockbuster film “Titanic,” you get Titanique, off-Broadway’s most award-winning splash hit, which turns one of the greatest love stories of all time into a hysterical musical fantasia. Want to find out what really happened to Jack and Rose on that fateful night? Just leave it to Céline Dion to enchant the audience with her totally wild take, recharting the course of Titanic’s beloved moments and characters with her iconic song catalog. Sailing on fierce powerhouse voices in show-stopping performances of such hits as “My Heart Will Go On,” “All By Myself” and “To Love You More” – backed by the unparalleled energy of a full live band – Titanique is a one-of-a-kind theatrical voyage bursting with nostalgia, heart and campy chaos.
CHICAGO SINGS 30 YEARS OF PORCHLIGHT
Monday, May 12, 2025
House of Blues Chicago, 329 N. Dearborn St.
Tickets: $75 – $175
The spring fundraising concert fittingly concludes the season with an unforgettable night of live performances commemorating 30 years of Porchlight with performances by Chicago theatre luminaries, the presentation of the 2025 Guy Adkins Award for Excellence in the Advancement of Music Theatre in Chicago and more.
Please note: Performances, actors and dates are subject to change.