Evanston Woman Wraps Up Her Starring Role In "Beautiful"
(CBS) -- For Abby Mueller, show business is the family business.
"My parents are both actors but very not actory type people," she said. "People thought we lived this Bohemian like lifestyle but we didn't. It was normal. It was fantastic."
Mueller graduated from Evanston Township High School. She, her sister and two brothers are all involved in the theater.
"We watched our parents and their friends as we were growing up and we were interested in it but we all didn't start doing theater until high school. I don't think we thought it would be a career for all of us," laughed Mueller.
Her younger sister Jesse won the 2014 Tony for her role as Carole King in "Beautiful."
Abby starred in "Kinky Boots" on Broadway and had numerous other big roles but she says the last thing she expected was to follow in your sister's footsteps.
"My sister nailed the part and it blew me away," she said. "It never crossed my mind until my agent called with an audition. I thought he was joking. I thought why would I want to touch that? Then I called her before I auditioned, I said, 'hey funny story for ya.' She was so great and supportive and was like 'yeah go ahead.' I think we both never expected it. We both get to play Carole King. I mean, who gets to say that?"
Mueller says performing in front of her hometown crowd has been an experience like no other.
"I never dreamed in a million years it would turn out like this," she said. "I just feel so lucky to be here even in this wacky, unexpected way it feels really amazing. I'm still in awe, I'm still pinching myself a lot. To just be home again and to get to connect with people has been invaluable. To have this long sit down in Chicago, it's like are you kidding me? It's been awesome."
Mueller and the cast move on to St. Louis next. "Beautiful" runs at the Oriental Theatre through February 21.