Caissie Levy's Son, 10, Thought She Was Elsa in Real Life When She Was in “Frozen” on Broadway (Exclusive)

She also shared that her two kids are "very theatrical" and "sing nonstop"

NEED TO KNOW

• Caissie Levy won Best Leading Actress in a Musical at the 2026 Tony Awards for her role in Ragtime
• Levy’s son Izaiah believed she was Elsa during her Frozen Broadway run but now understands she’s an actress
• The actress looks forward to spending more time with her kids after Ragtime closes in August

Caissie Levy's kids haven't been able to let it go that their mother played Elsa from Frozen on Broadway.

Levy, 45, who won Best Leading Actress in a Musical at the 2026 Tony Awards, spoke exclusively with PEOPLE at the event held at New York City's Radio City Music Hall on Sunday, June 7.

"My son Izaiah was 1 when I started playing Elsa and 4 by the time I ended. So he just thought I was Elsa. He didn't know I was an actor. He was just like, 'Mommy's Elsa,' " she says.

The Ragtime star continues, "Now he understands I play other parts too."

Levy shares Izaiah, 10, and daughter Talulah Ruby, 5, with her husband, actor and composer David Reiser. Given they have parents who both work in the arts, she shares that her kids have inherited creativity and are "very theatrical."

"We'll see what they end up doing, but yeah, they sing nonstop. They're very, very sociable. They're great kids," she says.

Levy has been playing Mother in the acclaimed revival of Ragtime at Lincoln Center since 2025, following an off-Broadway run at New York City Center. Before her Tony Award win, she had also received her first-ever nomination for the role.

"I love doing Ragtime every night with the people in this company," Levy shared in an interview with PEOPLE earlier this year. "The phrase 'we're a family' is so overused, but I've known so many of these people for years and we've all become really close."

She admitted she is "looking forward" to spending quality time with her children when the show closes on Aug. 16.

"I miss them terribly," the Hair alum admitted. "It's such a tough balancing act being a mom working on Broadway, especially during Tony season. I'm rarely home. So I'm looking forward to being there when they get off the bus from school and being able to make them a snack and play with them in the front yard and do chalk on the driveway and that kind of thing."

Levy previously spoke with PEOPLE in 2021 about raising her two children. She welcomed Izaiah in 2016 and originated the role of Elsa in Broadway's Frozen in 2018.

"Izaiah has only known me as Elsa," Levy said. "To be a mom for the first time and have those two things converge at the same time was just wild."

She had been starring in Off-Broadway's First Daughter Suite while she was pregnant with Izaiah until she was five months along. "[It was] just magic and crazy and out-of-body and wild, and also felt completely right," she explained. "Here I was, doing a show pregnant, and my baby was part of that."

When Izaiah was 2, he got to witness his mom belt out "Let It Go" and she said at the time that "he still draws pictures of me in my costume."

"To see his face. I mean, it made me so emotional to try to sing that song when I knew he was right there watching me," she recalled. "How special it was that I got to perform that for him."

Levy departed the role of Elsa in February 2020 and was just a day away from performing in the Broadway revival of Caroline, or Change when the pandemic shuttered Broadway theaters in March 2020.

"Okay, it's now or never. I'm not doing a show for the first time in a decade or something, let's try for this other baby," she recalled about discussing a second child with her husband.

Levy welcomed Talulah in March 2021 before heading back to work in Caroline, or Change later that year. She has since gone on to star in productions of Next to Normal in London and Leopoldstadt on Broadway.

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"I think the only thing I really hope for my kids is that they feel good about themselves, like themselves and have fun. So if that ends up leading them into somewhere in the arts — on stage, backstage, music, visual art — I'm all for it," Levy said about being a mother.

"I'm grateful my parents let me be who I was," she added, "and I just want to do that for my kids."

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