Former Miss America, now union leader hits the road in ‘Fun Home’

When the highly anticipated national touring production of the Tony Award-winning musical “Fun Home” arrives in Chicago next month, the cast will include Kate Shindle, a former Miss America and current president of Actors’ Equity, the union representing stage actors and stage managers.

In the show, Shindle, a graduate of Northwestern University, whose Broadway credits include “Jekyll & Hyde” and “Cabaret,” is cast in the role of lesbian cartoonist Alison Bechdel, the real-life comic strip author of “Dykes to Watch Out For.”

In a New York Times profile, Shindle says of the show/role: “There was a lot that resonated with me, in terms of the family dynamics,” she added. “And I think it’s exciting to take this show, with the topics that it addresses, across the country right now, so the activist part of my brain flipped on, too.” She even cut her hair to more closely resemble the close-cropped style worn by Bechdel.

Read the full story here.

For tickets to the Chicago production of “Fun Home,” running Nov. 2-13 at the Oriental Theatre, visit broadwayinchicago.com