Eisenhower, ‘Fun Home’ showing at Media Theatre through April 5

“Gotta do it,” Jennie Eisenhower said when Media Theatre artistic director Christian Ryan told her the 2015 Tony recipient for Best Musical, “Fun Home,” was among productions he planned to present this season.

Eisenhower was already set to play a demanding central role, Miss Hannigan, in the Media production of “Annie.” Since splitting her time between theater, which in Eisenhower’s case means performing, directing, teaching, and coaching, and real estate, which earns her a more predictable living, Eisenhower opted to limit how much theater she would do and seek only roles that interested her.

I can testify the role of the adult Alison Bechdel in “Fun Home,” a character taken from real life — see Bechdel’s 2006 picture-book novel — who takes a deep look at her past to see how she became the woman she is, has been on Jennie’s radar for the entire time since “Fun Home” debuted off-Broadway in 2013.

We had a long conversation about the show then.

Jennie, who was going through some changes in her life was excited not only about the content of the musical but by it featuring the first in-depth lesbian lead in theater history.

“There had been other lesbian characters,” Eisenhower said during a recent telephone conversation about “Fun Home,” but they were supporting players or didn’t have the depth and scope of Alison in ‘Fun Home.’ ”

I added even Lillian Hellman’s groundbreaking “The Children’s Hour” in the 1930s, hinted pointedly at the relationship between two woman teachers at a prestigious boarding school rather than saying anything outright.

The time has come for Eisenhower to put her stamp on Alison Bechdel, who is seen simultaneously at three different ages in the musical by Lisa Kron (book and lyrics) and Jeanine Tesori (music).

“Gotta do it” has turned into “Am doing it,” as “Fun Home” opens a brief run at the Media from Wednesday, March 25 to Sunday, April 5 with Eisenhower in the lead. Tickets are available at www.mediatheatre.org/shows-tickets. 

“‘Fun Home’ is so layered,” Eisenhower says during our telephone interview. “There are so many reasons it is important and special.

“Having the first significant LGBTQ lead is only part of the equation, an essential part, but the music is stirring, and the piece itself is a deep examination of a family, the excavation of a family and all Alison goes through to understand her father.

“Now an adult, she can reintegrate all that happened from an older lens.

“‘Fun Home’ speaks to anyone who has been part of a family. There’s universality [to] the adult child looking back at her parents from the adult perspective.

“Alison gets to think and speak about all she internalized. It’s important for her to go back in time to discern who her father was and, more, to understand him.”

Eisenhower speaks of a personal interest in “Fun Home” and how it arrived on Broadway at a time in which she was making changes in her life.

“‘Fun Home’ appeared around the time I came out. I was amazed to see a mature lesbian woman represented on stage. It was so, so important, not just to me, but to many who had been waiting to see a character like Alison on stage. A character who spoke openly and who embraced who she was.

‘Fun Home’ left no room for nuance. It announced Alison’s truth clearly. It showed that truth and how it freed from the turmoil her father faced. Many people identified with Alison. They see parallels with their lives.

“Alison becomes a writer. She tells her story in a graphic novel. She’s an observer. I think of her as I thought of Jo in ‘Little Women.’ Everything happens to that character, and she turns it into a story.”

As Alison, Eisenhower never leaves the stage of “Fun Home.” As she says, the adult Alison observes all her younger self experiences, as a child and a teen.

“Fun Home” has no intermission, so being on for the whole time is one challenge.

Eisenhower says another is Tesori and Kron’s songs navigate emotions so deep and thoughtful, she can’t help but respond to them.

“I’m working in rehearsal to get past that so I can express the emotions without reacting to them.”

As mentioned, Jennie Eisenhower has her feet firmly placed in two camps. She says she will never leave the stage and wants to continue playing roles that interest and challenge her.

At the same time, she found, especially when COVID curtailed most stage activity in 2020, she had to be practical and think in more realistic terms about her livelihood.

The answer turned out to be real estate. In addition to being a busy actress, Jennie has done so well as a real estate agent, she now leads her own team of real estate agents at Compass.

“When COVID came, I began exploring ideas for a career that could be as fulfilling as theater but would make me more secure financially.

“As I got older and my daughter got older, I thought about the living I was cobbling from acting, teaching, directing, coaching, consulting and all the other things involved with theater. I was just managing. I wanted to act, but I needed something steadier, more stable, and more lucrative. I realized that as I aged, I’d need more.

“A friend from the theater had gone into real estate. A career counselor I consulted told me questions I answered showed I had an aptitude for sales.

“’Sales?’ I thought. I didn’t see myself as a salesperson.

“A Realtor is more. It’s about fitting the right person to the right house. Although I found real estate different from the theater, I found I could be just as passionate.

“I also found I had more time to spend with my daughter. Theater involves a lot of time away from children and family, evening hours when children are home.

“Blending theater and real estate, I find I can mesh both careers, Sometimes that means being on the phone with people or my team during breaks in rehearsals of at intermissions.

“It also means I have more time with my daughter. I can pick her up from school.

“The flexibility appeals to me. I have success in two fields. I have the security I was missing. I have time to be with my daughter and wife.”

Jennie and her wife, Sara, have been married for 10 years. Her daughter, Chloe, age 12, is among the reasons Jennie was talking with Christian Ryan and found out about “Fun Home.”

“Chloe is 12, and the acting bug took over. When she saw the Media was doing “Annie,” she asked if she should audition.

“Of course, I encouraged her to try it, to go for what she wanted.

“Then I got the idea that if Chloe was going to audition, I’d go with her and audition as well. She chickened out, but I kept my appointment, had the audition, and got the part.

“Then Christian and I started talking about ‘Fun Home,” and …”

Cayleigh Capaldi grew up in the theater, not only as a performer but as the daughter of two actors whose lives, centered in London, took her all over a world she’s covered in her own right since she began acting.

“Most of my childhood was spent in London where my parents performed in those glorious old theaters in the West End,” said Capaldi by telephone from Greenville, N.C., where she was appearing as Maria in the national tour of “The Sound of Music” that arrives in Philadelphia for a week, March 31 to April 5, at the Academy of Music.

Tickets are available at www.ensembleartsphilly.org/series-and-subscriptions/broadway-series/the-sound-of-music. 

“Those theaters were my personal playground. I loved exploring them.

“My mother (Leigh Zimmerman, who received an Olivier Award as Sheila in “A Chorus Line”) created a tradition that began when she was playing Ulla in “The Producers” at the Drury Lane Theatre.

“In London theaters, cups of ice cream are sold at intermission. Every night, my mother would come to her dressing room at intermission. I’d join her there and, lo and behold, there would always be an ice cream waiting for me. It was like a fairy brought it.

“This tradition lasted show after show, and I always enjoyed it and always thought the ice cream arrived magically without my having to go downstairs to get it.

It wasn’t until I was 16 or 17 that I found out my mother sent her dresser down to procure the ice cream and have it ready as a nightly surprise.”

There was little question that when it was time for Cayleigh to choose a profession, it would be as an actor even though her parents were the main ones trying to talk her out of acting, stressing the insecurity and emotional ups and downs.

There may have been other choices — she speaks three languages and could have been an interpreter, translator, etc. —but theater won out.

Maybe because she was singing professionally at age 3.

“My grandmother likes to boast that our family has been vaudevillians for seven generations,” Capaldi says.

Her father is Dominick Allen, who as a musician toured with Foreigner, was part of Liberace’s show in Las Vegas, and appeared on Broadway opposite Helen Reddy in “Blood Brothers.”

A lot of Capaldi’s recent work has been in new shows such as “Titanique,” a spoof of the movie “Titanic” in which she played Celine Dion and Kate Winslet’s character, Rose.

Also, Cayleigh sings everything from pop to rhythm and blues. Being a trooper in the family tradition, she enjoyed touring in “The Sound of Music.”

“We’ve been all over the United States. I’ve really gotten to know the country and enjoyed many places — Chicago; Austin, Texas; Durham, N.C. — but I’m excited to get back to the East Coast.

“It is amazing to bring ‘The Sound of Music’ to so many different audiences. The story is so beloved, you can feel how much audiences love it.

“Also, Maria has much more complexity than is apparent. Playing her is a gift that keeps on giving. I find new aspects of her all the time. She teaches me about life. She touches people’s lives in ways I didn’t imagine until I played her.”

Capaldi said playing Celine Dion was a constant vocal challenge.

”‘Titanique’ is a tribute to Celine Dion. We all sing her songs for 90 minutes eight shows a week. Even Celine Dion doesn’t sing Celine Dion eight shows a week.

“The important thing is that you show what makes Celine great and avoid caricature. Mastering the vocals was worth it. Playing every night taught me the stamina to play Maria eight times a week.

“In addition, ‘Titanique’ honed comedy skills that will be useful everywhere.”

Because Capaldi’s life took her so many places, she’s had experiences. She learned languages, including Mandarin Chinese because she went to a school at which language skills were stressed.

Thanks to Cayleigh seeing a television ad, her entire family spent a summer touring eight countries and 12 cities when she was a teen.

Their trip was chronicled on a television show called “The Hangzhou Global Tour,” with Cayleigh as one of the emcees.

“I was in high school in California and happened to see an ad about a competition. The city of Hangzhou, China, was looking for two families — one American and one Chinese — to tour the world together. The purpose was to promote the assets of Hangzhou as a unique cultural center and spur tourism there.

“Our family won, partly because I spoke Mandarin. We were flown to Hangzhou, treated like celebrities, given first class treatment, and shown the cultural treasures that were there.

“We met the Chinese family we’d be traveling with and had several meals together. We were compatible from the beginning.

“Next, we duplicated a trip along the Silk Road from Europe to China. It was a singular adventure. We went though Greece and Croatia among other places. We met all kinds of people. It was all filmed and showed internationally.”

In addition to being an actress and singer, Capaldi follows in her father’s tradition as a musician. She says her original music is influenced by rhythm and blues, and she looks forward to performing it.

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