This ‘Waitress’ star has had to get through grief to play her dreams

If it’s a comeback, it was totally unexpected.

After her mother was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s in 2013, Erin Capello, then 25, decided to give up her budding career to be a full-time caregiver and sister-mom to her six younger siblings.

At a time when peers were building skill sets and letting off steam with all-night benders, Capello was learning last rites and minding children. She did not know if she would ever perform onstage again.

That caregiving spell lasted for 10 years. After her mother’s passing at 62 in January 2023, Capello returned to the stage, winning leading roles in “Next to Normal” at Theater Latté Da and “I Am Betty” at History Theatre.

Now she summons all her experiences to play the title role of Jenna in “Waitress,” now up at Artistry in Bloomington. The musical, she said, is as much to audiences as it is to honor the spirit of the woman who ardently championed her.

“My mother really believed in us and taught us the value of arts,” Capello said.

In “Waitress,” her character is caught in an abusive marriage and gets unexpectedly pregnant. Feeling stuck and dreaming of winning a pie contest to change her circumstances, she channels her creativity and invention into pie-making.

It’s an emotional arc to which Capello can easily relate.

“Life hits you hard when you’re confronted with things like disease and loss,” said Capello, who not only had to reckon with grief from losing her mother but also from the loss of a child in real life. “When I came back to the theater, I wasn’t sure that I could find joy in things like theater or music, or even that I could come back to this. So, I’m grateful to be able to be back here [onstage].”

Capello’s talents are undisputed. Ask any of those who’ve worked with her about what’s so special about her, and you will get a litany of praise.

“What an awe-inspiring stunner,” said “Betty” director and self-described Capello “superfan” Maija Garcia, who tapped Capello to be one of the leads in that musical that telescoped a century of women’s fighting for progress. “Erin is always the most prepared actor in the rehearsal room. She makes smart choices, is consistent and fresh, and just has a magic presence.”

“She’s a beautiful singer with an amazing voice,” said Artistry’s executive artistic director Kelli Foster Warder. “Audiences really connect with her through her voice, but also her authenticity and truth-telling come through really strongly.”

“Waitress” director Amanda White points to Capello’s ability, both as an actor and a singer, to find the right pitch for her character.

“She’s very skilled and I’m sure she does a lot of work, but she makes it look so easy, so natural,” White said. “Music just seems to fall out of her with relatively little effort, and the sound sits right in the middle of the tone.”

If she’s not a natural, then at least Capello gets her musical talent honestly.

Her Mexican Irish family tree is suffused with singers and players of instruments. In fact, her parents, Claudia Naughton Capello and John Capello, met as members of the Minnesota choral group the Skyway Singers, and sang in various Twin Cities bands. Her late mother also cantered at Holy Family Catholic Church in St. Louis Park.

Capello’s grandmother Olga Plaza and great-aunt Estelle Plaza performed traditional Mexican music under the name Dueto Azteca in Chicago, Indiana, and throughout the American South. Her great-grandmother Lupe Plaza was famous for her singing voice in the Chicago area a century ago.

“My mom comes from a family of 10 kids, and every single one of them is very musically inclined,” Capello said.

She had her first role at 14 in “The Christmas Schooner” at History Theatre. It was unplanned.

“I was singing to myself in a living room and was overheard by someone who was a local producer,” Capello recalled. “She said, ‘Gosh, got to get that kid into theater.’ So, I auditioned with no background or knowledge or anything, and got my first job.”

She was on a roll, winning work at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres and at Latté Da, where she found a champion in founders Peter Rothstein and Denise Prosek. Prosek would later compose “Betty.”

“Erin has an incredibly versatile voice, and she can sing any style — opera, power rock, contemporary ballads," Prosek said. She has “the depth of a seasoned actor, shaping each lyric with the choices that are driving the song [and] always takes you on a journey into the mind and emotions of the character.”

But then the family was hit by her mother’s bombshell diagnosis, which had its own grace. While Alzheimer’s often robs some victims of the ability to recognize their loved ones, her mom “never had that moment where she forgot any of us or our names,” Capello said. “But she lost her ability to communicate. My mother was an incredible performer with a gorgeous voice. That she could no longer sing or talk was really hard.”

Capello has honed her craft through diligent study, polishing her craft at Normandale Community College in Bloomington.

She continues to build on her work, supported now by her husband, Shaun Kopp, and their three children.

But as she channels Jenna, Capello serves up more than pies.

“People always talk about how privileged they are to tell these stories,” Capello. “I’m immensely thankful to be able to do something that I didn’t know I would ever do again.”

As she spoke, it was clear that she was nodding not simply to her colleagues and directors but also to her guardian spirit.

When: 7:30 p.m. Thu.-Fri., 2 & 7:30 p.m. Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. Ends May 11.

Where: Artistry, 1800 W. Old Shakopee Rd., Bloomington.

Tickets: $34-$64. 952-563-8575 or artistrymn.org.