Karen Olivo, who played Angelica Schuyler in the Chicago production of Hamilton, will star in the Forward Theater Company's upcoming production of the Tony-winning musical Fun Home during the Madison, Wisconsin, theatre's 2018–2019 season, according to Madison.com.
Olivo, who won her Tony for playing Anita in the Broadway revival of West Side Story, will play Alison Bechdel opposite Clare Arena Haden as Helen in the musical that has music by Jeanine Tesori and a libretto by Lisa Kron.
“Three years ago we started working on getting the rights for [Fun Home],” Forward Theater Company Artistic Director Jennifer Uphoff Gray told Madison.com. “Because they were doing the national tour, they were not ready to talk about regional licensing until a year ago.” Dates of the production have yet to be announced.
Creators Tesori and Kron made history with Fun Home in 2015, when the production became the first Broadway musical written by women to win the Best Musical Tony, and the first Tony-winning musical to have a lesbian as its main character. Tesori and Kron also won the Tony Award for Best Original Score. It won five Tony Awards in all, including Best Book (Kron) and Best Direction (Sam Gold).
Olivo, who currently resides in Madison, has also been seen on Broadway in Rent, Brooklyn, and In the Heights.
Click here for more information about Forward Theater Company.
Miguel Cervantes and Ari Asfar in Hamilton
