Caissie Levy and Betsy Morgan: Sisters at Heart and Sisters Onstage

"Apparently," says Caissie Levy, "it's where Hair originated way, way back." Levy, who starred in the Public Theater's 2009 Broadway revival of the musical, is talking about the Anspacher Theater on the third floor at the Public, where she currently appears in the new Michael John LaChiusa musical First Daughter Suite. "Is that true?" Betsy Morgan, her onstage sister, asks excitedly. "Yeah. That made me really happy. It felt like a synchronistic good omen for our company." "Omigosh," Morgan says. "I love that."

In LaChiusa's quartet of one-act musicals about the personal lives of various presidential daughters, Levy and Morgan first share the stage as the Nixon sisters on the day of Tricia's wedding. In the next segment, Morgan then appears as a camera-wielding Susan Ford in a fantastical dream sequence set on an ocean liner to the Middle East. After an intermission, Levy takes the spotlight as Patti Davis, who recently published her damning Reagan family novel Home Front.

This is their second time in a show together (Morgan actually understudied Levy as Fantine when Les Misérables returned to Broadway in 2014), and it's clear from a conversation with the pair that it won't be their last.

Tell me about your history with Michael John LaChiusa.
Betsy Morgan: I've been working with Michael John for over ten years now. This is my third full production, [after] Bernarda Alba at Lincoln Center and Giant at Signature. He's part of my vocabulary.

Caissie Levy: This is my first [time working with him]. I did a reading of this and I played Bets' part, actually.

Betsy: And the first time I did it, I played Caissie's part.

Caissie: I didn't know that. That's so funny. That was my first time working with Michael John and Kirsten, and it was crazy and exciting and scary.

Is his music hard to sing?
Caissie: Yes. But it's also so satisfying. Musically and lyrically, it's so dynamic and makes so much sense. It gives you so much that you don't have to embellish. It's all there for you, which is part of the thrill and the fright of it, because you want to do it justice.

Betsy: And also, he writes the way the character thinks. It takes away a lot of the guesswork. As long as you're plugged into what he's written, you just go along for the ride. Is it hard to learn initially? It can be very difficult. And some of the notes can come out of nowhere, and the timing is always tricky. But it all makes sense, every single note and every word. Once you know it, it feels really good.

Is it daunting to play real people?
Caissie: It is. It was the very first thing I found daunting and exciting about it. I kept thinking about it the whole time. These are real people who are alive and could come see this. Though I don't think they will. It feels like it's a different level of responsibility when they're living, breathing people.

Betsy: It's also a completely unique personality trait. There are only so many people who have been First Daughters or First Ladies. At the same time, part of what we explore in the show are the universalities that come with being sisters and mothers, or daughters. The pieces inform the audience of these real feelings that women and all people go through, and you end up having a very personal experience that's completely separate from who the people were.

Betsy, you get to star in the most fantastical piece in the show, "Amy Carter's Fabulous Dream Adventure," which takes your character, Susan Ford, on an imaginary journey to Iran with young Amy Carter (played by Carly Tamer). Is it as fun to be in that piece as it is to watch?
Betsy: It doesn't feel as fun, because the frame of mind that I'm going into is this place of honest embarrassment and late-teenager/early-twenties hell. [Susan Ford] is humiliated and she's in the spotlight all the time. Where we go in the piece is the idea of the joy of being a First Daughter and being in the White House, and [how] it gets snatched away from her more quickly than she had wanted. And it feels so bad. So actually doing it, it feels really fun when it's over. The people they've chosen are real. They had to pick what [information about their lives] got out there, and for us to go play in the parts they didn't want public, it's dangerous and painful. And, luckily, fun to watch.

Is it more fun, as performers, to play the sparring Nixon sisters on the day of Tricia's wedding?
Caissie: We're having a blast. Bets and I did Les Mis together, so it's really fun to play sisters. We were very excited.

Betsy: We were kindred spirits from the very beginning.

Caissie: Barbara [Walsh, who plays Pat Nixon] is amazing and Theresa [McCarthy, who plays Hannah Nixon] is incredible, even though we don't get to look at her. She sounds so glorious. It's been really fun to find the moments where we bond, and the moments where we spat, and to bounce back and forth between those the way real sisters do. That's evolved naturally throughout the process. We're still playing and finding moments, which is really satisfying.

This is your second show together. Are you gunning for a third?
Caissie: We were talking about that the other day! Have we decided on any? We have to figure that out.

Betsy: Of course, [we want to do] things that are new. So that musical that hasn't been written yet for Betsy Morgan and Caissie Levy…

Caissie: Anyone want to write something? Let's do that.

Betsy: Our styles are so cool together. Caissie has this legit voice that you don't hear too often because she's always doing the pop stuff, and I have this legit voice that sometimes that sticks a toe into the—

Caissie: Girl can belt. We have to think about this for real. Let's ask Chris [Fenwick, Morgan's fiancé]. Or maybe David [Reiser, Levy's husband] will write us something. We'll get our husbands to do stuff for us.

Betsy: And Chris can musical direct. It'll be like a family. We'll all hate each other at the end! [laughs]