LGBT-Themed Musical 'Fun Home' to Open Early on Broadway

They just can't wait to put out the welcome mat.

Fun Home, a coming-of-age musical based on lesbian cartoonist Alison Bechdel's relationship with her closeted father, will begin on Broadway a week earlier than previously announced.

Following its sold-out world premiere off-Broadway at the Public Theater, Fun Home, composer Jeanine Tesori and out playwright Lisa Kron's musical adaptation of Bechdel's acclaimed 2006 graphic memoir, is now scheduled to start performances March 27 and officially open April 19, 2015, at Broadway's Circle in the Square Theatre.

Sam Gold, who helmed Fun Home off-Broadway, will direct the musical's Broadway debut.

"Moving between past and present, Alison relives her unique childhood playing 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," read press notes about the production.

Lyricist and librettist Kron, cofounder of the Five Lesbian Brothers theater troupe and a Tony nominee for Well, also wrote In the Wake and 2.5 Minute Ride. Tesori is the Tony-nominated composer of Shrek, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and Caroline, or Change.

Producers have confirmed that Tony winner Michael Cerveris, who played closeted patriarch Bruce Bechdel in the musical's celebrated off-Broadway engagement, will reprise his role on Broadway. The official casting news came shortly after Hugh Jackman expressed interest in playing the role. Additional casting has not yet been announced.

Cerveris, a Tony winner for his work in Assassins, has appeared on Broadway in The Who’s Tommy, Titanic, Sweeney Todd, Lovemusik, Cymbeline, Hedda Gabler, In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play), and Evita. He was also a notable replacement as Hedwig in the original off-Broadway run of Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

The original off-Broadway cast of Fun Home, a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, featured Beth Malone, Sydney Lucas, and Alexandra Socha as author-narrator Bechdel at three different ages. Tony nominee Judy Kuhn, Griffin Birney, Roberta Colindrez, Noah Hinsdale, and Joel Perez completed the cast. The original cast recording is now available.

The Advocate placed Fun Home at the top of its list of the best LGBT-inclusive New York theater of 2013, calling it "fresh and uncommonly moving."

Watch a montage of scenes from Fun Home in the video below.