After 20 years on Broadway, Caissie Levy is getting a well-earned spotlight for Mother in Ragtime: “To have this recognition now, for a role I feel so deeply connected to, and at a moment when Ragtime is resonating so deeply — it just means everything.“

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Caissie Levy has had an incredible 20-year career on Broadway — and Ragtime feels like a well-earned moment in the spotlight.

After years of acclaimed performances in shows like Frozen, Hair, and Next to Normal, Caissie is receiving her first Tony nomination for Mother in the powerful revival of Ragtime. When I saw the production, I was blown away by the emotional depth she brought to the role. The entire cast was extraordinary, and by the end of the show, I was in tears.

Speaking with Caissie over Zoom, she opened up about balancing Broadway with motherhood, why playing Mother feels so personal to her, and how this chapter of her career feels especially meaningful.Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

First of all, congratulations on your Tony nomination. What does this moment mean to you, and what was your reaction?It was pure joy. It means everything to me. I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I’ve been in a lot of Tony-nominated and Tony-winning productions, but I’ve never been singled out before. To have this recognition now, for a role I feel so deeply connected to, and at a moment when Ragtime is resonating so deeply — it just means everything.

You mentioned Ragtime is resonating so deeply. Why do you think this show feels especially powerful at this moment in time?I think we’re living through a very difficult time in our country and in our world. There’s a lot of fracturing — within families and friendships, and politically, emotionally, racially, and religiously.There’s so much unrest right now, and I think Ragtime speaks to all of that and the complicated feelings around it. The show holds a lot of hope and joy, but also a lot of despair, often at the same time.I think revivals are meant to be put on when we need them and when we can see them with fresh eyes. This feels like a perfect marriage of art and timing because it gives people a place to sit in those complicated feelings and conversations.

People may come in connecting to one storyline in particular. Hopefully, by the end, they’re seeing the humanity in another storyline they might not have considered before. Maybe it opens conversations with friends and family, or even prompts people to question their own belief systems.That’s so much of what Mother does throughout the piece, which I love. I feel like the audience and Mother are riding this journey together.

Mother carries so much emotional weight throughout the show. How do you balance giving that much emotionally eight times a week without burning yourself out?

I think great art demands that you go there full throttle. I’m not interested in participating in something that doesn’t push my boundaries and require me to commit fully. That’s why I love acting so much.

The balance comes more from the self-care around the show, so you can do that vulnerable work onstage. Before I had kids, I was the kind of actor who was very regimented. Then you have children and realize you’re giving your life over to them in every possible way — and with happiness (laughs) — but with that happiness comes extreme exhaustion.

When I’m at the theater, I need to be fully present, but the second I walk through the door at home, my kids don’t care that I’m on Broadway. They love that I am, and they love growing up backstage — but they need lunch packed, they want to talk about school, they want to tell me it’s unfair that I’m not home at bedtime every night. It’s real life, right?

I don’t want to protect myself from the emotion of the piece because that would mean editing myself onstage, and that’s the last thing I want to do. I want to be as bare and honest as possible with the material and with my fellow actors.One of the gifts of this production is that the acting is at such a high level that we really lean on each other. If someone’s having a difficult day, someone else is there to buoy them. That’s what a theater company is all about.

The stamina required for a role like Mother is incredible. What is something audiences might not realize about what it takes to perform a Broadway role eight times a week?Oh, there’s a lot, and it depends on the role. So much of vocal production is influenced by the character you’re playing. With Mother, the way she moves — how buttoned-up and tall and corseted she is — affects how I sing.Even the hats affect the position of my neck, which changes vocal production. Most of the women are in heels, and we're all running around backstage, on the stairs, and on the lifts. You’re delivering the lines in the same physical position every night, and over time, your body locks into those patterns, so you have to actively counteract that.

People might not think about the physicality, but vocalists and actors are athletes. Producing the sound required is an athletic endeavor. It involves the whole body, not just the voice. I’m singing from my legs and toes just as much as from my vocal folds.

A lot of my prep is actually physical warmup, not just vocal warmup. I've got my personal steamer here. We're constantly drinking gallons of water and taking our allergy medication because this time of year is brutal. Every day you wake up, and you begin to do the check-ins that you need to do. I like to warm up slowly throughout the day, bit by bit.

You have so many powerful moments in the show. Are there any that stand out to you personally?My favorite moments change every night. I love the small moments of comedy I’ve found in Mother. I think humor is so integral to who she is and how she copes in the world. She has a genuine zest for life, and I love it when I can play with the lightness. Some of that is in the courtship, when Mother helps Sarah and Coalhouse reunite. Also, when Father comes back from the trip and discovers she has a child in their home. There’s a lot of tension and missed connections between them.

Another emotional moment that I love playing every night is the scene before "Back to Before" with Colin Donnell, who plays Father. He and I have been friends since way back, and his wife was Anna in Frozen with me. We are very connected, and Colin is such a fabulous actor. That scene is so exciting from an acting standpoint, because although the macro version of it is the same, our choices each night vary ever so slightly.I find it incredibly deep to play the moment where Father says, "I love you." Mother — as we've learned over and over in the story — is unable to lie. She can only stand in the truth. She could easily reply, "I love you too," but she doesn't quite feel that in the same way that she once did. Instead, she does say, "Be safe." She still wants the best for him. As a married woman and a mother myself, the stakes of that moment feel enormous to me.

You’ve played several mothers onstage, including Diana in Next to Normal. What did that experience teach you that you still carry into your work today?

Playing Diana changed me massively as an actor. It’s probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done professionally, but also the most satisfying. What I really learned from that role was a sense of abandon on stage. I’m naturally a planner. I like to do my homework and know exactly what I’m doing — and then I get to be free on stage. Diana helped me learn to embrace the mess a little bit more.Playing a woman with bipolar disorder, who is in active mania, required a certain level of abandon from myself as Caissie. It made me grow, and I've brought that to all of my work since. There’s a courage and ferocity I found while playing Diana that I carry with me in Mother.

After everything this season has brought — the response to Ragtime, the Tony nomination, all of it — what do you hope you remember most about this chapter of your life years from now?Oh, I love that question. I'm really trying to stay present. I hope that I can look back and remember the moments with the people I love. For me, this has felt like a celebration of the work I've put in for the last 20 years since my Broadway debut, and the relationships I've made with people.It's really down to the people you meet. Anyone who stays in theater this long has to love it. It's a choice you make to do eight shows a week. It doesn't happen by accident.You love what you do, and it's because you love the people you do it with. That's what is hitting me right now. At every event and celebration for the show, I'm seeing friends that I've grown up with in this business.They mean so much to me. When I look back on this time, I hope I remember all of those connections and remember that, ultimately, it’s about the people.

Ragtime is playing now at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre in Lincoln Center.