{"id":748262,"date":"2026-06-19T23:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T23:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/748262\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T23:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T23:21:09","slug":"hamilton-born-caissie-levy-wants-to-use-tony-win-to-start-conversations-about-motherhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/748262\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamilton-born Caissie Levy wants to use Tony win to start conversations about motherhood"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Caissie Levy, the Hamilton, Ont.-born star of Ragtime, poses with the Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical trophy at the 79th Tony Awards in New York City on June 7.Angelina Katsanis\/Reuters<\/p>\n

In 1989, when Caissie Levy was eight years old, she saw a Mirvish production of Les Mis\u00e9rables with her parents and two older brothers in Toronto. She instantly knew acting was what she wanted to do with her life. Fast-forward 37 years to June 7, and Levy took home her first Tony Award. The 45-year-old won best actress in a leading role in a musical for her powerhouse performance as Mother in the highly praised revival of Ragtime. <\/p>\n

Since her Broadway debut in 2002 as Penny in Hairspray \u2013 after playing the same role in a Toronto production \u2013 Hamilton, Ont.-born Levy has performed many notable parts, including originating the role of Elsa in the Frozen musical.<\/p>\n

While her stage credits include playing several moms \u2013 most notably in The Bedwetter; Next to Normal; Caroline, or Change; and Leopoldstadt \u2013 she said in her acceptance speech that being a mother to her two children, 10-year-old Izaiah and five-year-old Talulah, \u201cis the greatest joy of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

From her home in New Jersey, Levy spoke to The Globe and Mail about her roots in Hamilton and how Broadway can support people having to choose between a successful theatre career and a fulfilling family life. <\/p>\n

What has your life been like for the past couple of weeks? What was it like stepping back onto the Broadway stage as a Tony Award winner?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a wild few days, full of so many emotions. It\u2019s been a lot, but certainly something that I am incredibly grateful for and have really enjoyed. Of course there\u2019s overwhelm. But Tuesday night\u2019s show after the Tonys, stepping onstage with our wins and having the audience go absolutely bananas and show us that love was really special. We felt connected to the audience in this sort of electric way.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Caissie Levy, centre, performs with the cast of Ragtime at the recent Tony Awards.Charles Sykes\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

What was your life like growing up in Hamilton? <\/p>\n

It was the best. I\u2019m super proud to be from Hamilton, and I\u2019m so grateful to the community for raising me in the theatre. I feel like without that scene and my mentors David Dayler and Gary Smith, I would not be here today.<\/p>\n

David ran this program called New Faces in Hamilton and was also the drama teacher for many years at Westdale high school. And Gary directed me in high school at the Players\u2019 Guild, which was a big moment for me. Both of them have been my anchors growing up. They were so impactful on my life. <\/p>\n

My Canadian roots are so important to me, and I\u2019m so proud to be Canadian and to be from Hamilton. I always feel a connection to home, and that will always be home to me. <\/p>\n

You spent years helping to develop The Lost Boys musical, planned to stay with Ragtime for just a short period and then join the former this season. In November, 2025, you departed The Lost Boys prerun. How did you make that decision?<\/p>\n

Any working parent knows the constant balancing act that goes into being a human and having a career and being a decent parent. The Broadway schedule is so difficult in its own way, because we\u2019re gone at night. <\/p>\n

Our kids go to school all day, and as they\u2019re coming home and getting off the bus, I\u2019m getting in my car and driving into Manhattan. It\u2019s a good problem to have, because I have had a long career on Broadway. It is also a huge challenge in raising two young kids with my husband. <\/p>\n

As actors we want to say yes to all the jobs all the time, because you never know what\u2019s around the corner. Sometimes things conflict. We had moved all these things around to make both Lost Boys and Ragtime work, and then it ultimately became clear that my children needed me around a lot more, and I had to choose them first. <\/p>\n

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In your acceptance speech, you made a point to talk about how no one does it alone, and to thank every babysitter who\u2019s made it possible to perform on Broadway. What would you change about the industry? And do you think the Tony gives you more influence to make that happen?<\/p>\n

I think every career milestone and every rung of the ladder helps you have more power in conversation and influence over how things work. So many of my dear female friends in the business are mothers, and we are all navigating this together. <\/p>\n

We talk about it all the time \u2013 that there\u2019s room for innovation and growth in this department of our business. The charge is being led by the moms, but it\u2019s the dads too. And it\u2019s not just the actors: It\u2019s the crew and everybody backstage. Folks who want to be parents should not have to choose between a life in the theatre and a home life.<\/p>\n

Some forms of role-sharing and more alternates could be interesting. I started out as an understudy, and that\u2019s how you come up in the business. It would give young actors opportunities to have one or two shows a week so that parents could actually put their kids to bed and still get to bring their gifts to Broadway and beyond. <\/p>\n

We owe it to the industry because we want to keep great artists working, and we want people to have a full life. The more full life you have offstage, the more life you can bring to a character onstage, so it\u2019s all in service of that.<\/p>\n

This interview has been edited and condensed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Caissie Levy, the Hamilton, Ont.-born star of Ragtime, poses with the Best Performance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":748263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75,2922],"class_list":["post-748262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-noastack"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=748262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/748263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}