It was during the original Off-Broadway Public Theater run of Fun Home when Tony winner Jackman, in an interview with The New York Times, revealed a dream musical role that is on his radar.
Jackman was asked if he would consider being a replacement in a role, a rare move for actors of his caliber. The Tony winner replied that the father in Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron's Fun Home would be the role he would take on. "It's an astonishing part," Jackman said in 2014, describing the role of Bruce Bechdel, the closeted gay father central to the story who commits suicide. The role was created Off-Broadway by Tony Award winner Michael Cerveris, who earned critical praise and the Lucille Lortel Award for his performance, one that he is now repeating on Broadway.
Fun Home won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical and Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Lead Actor (Michael Cerveris) and Outstanding Featured Actress (Judy Kuhn).
Tesori is the Tony-nominated composer of Caroline, or Change; Shrek; Violet; and Thoroughly Modern Millie. Book writer and lyricist Kron, a Tony nominee for Well, also penned In the Wake and 2.5 Minute Ride. Fun Home dramatizes lesbian cartoonist Bechdel's coming-of-age and her relationship with her closeted gay father.