'Fun Home' national tour will be led by an ex-Miss America

<p>NEW YORK (AP) - A national tour of the groundbreaking Broadway musical "Fun Home" will be led by some theater veterans and one who is also a former beauty queen.</p>

<p>Kate Shindle, the president of the Actors' Equity Association and 1998 Miss America winner, will play the grown-up Allison, alongside Robert Petkoff ("Ragtime") as Bruce and Susan Moniz ("Grease") as Helen.</p>

<p>The tour kicks off in Cleveland in October and then stops in Durham, North Carolina; Chicago; St. Louis; and Detroit before ending the year in Minneapolis. It starts 2017 in Las Vegas and then heads to Denver; San Francisco; Los Angeles; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Washington, D.C., among other stops.</p>

<p>The 2015 Tony-winning show is based on Alison Bechdel's graphic novel memoir about growing up with a closeted dad in the family's funeral home business.</p>

<p>Shindle, who has appeared on Broadway in "Legally Blonde" and "Wonderland," leads a 50,000-strong union but it's a post that doesn't pay .</p>

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<p>Online: http://www.funhomebroadway.com</p>