Caissie Levy and Jack Wolfe's Perfect Loving Family Reunion on Broadway

When Caissie Levy first met Jack Wolfe in a rehearsal room in London, she knew immediately she’d found a lifelong friend. It didn’t matter that she was playing his mother—and he, [spoiler alert] the ghost of her dead son who drives her to madness—in the Donmar Warehouse production of Next to Normal. “I was like, ‘That’s one of my people,’” Levy recalls. “We instantly connected over musical style and personality. It was just easy and it felt like home.”

Next to Normal played out its run at the Donmar and transferred to the West End. Not only did Levy and Wolfe’s friendship continue, but she became sort of a big sister-mentor for the rising young star. Between the two runs, Wolfe made his first trip to New York City, where he stayed with Levy’s family. He came back after the West End engagement last fall and booked a concert at the nightclub 54 Below. The buzz on Next to Normal was so great that it turned into three sold-out shows, with Levy joining him onstage.

And at the same time, Wolfe had become friends with Anaïs Mitchell, the Tony-winning creator of Hadestown. That’s part of how he landed his Broadway debut, as Orpheus, at the Walter Kerr Theatre. Levy, who herself is making a grand return to Broadway as Mother in Ragtime, has been there every step of the way. “I touched down in New York to a text from Caissie being like, ‘How are you? What do you need? What can I help you with in the city?'” Wolfe says. “I always sort of hoped that Next to Normal would bring me here, and in a way, I feel like it did.”

Listen to Levy and Wolfe’s full conversation below: