'4 111111111P1 11 1111111111111111111.111111111Wfw Arts & Entertainment teenage Angst Jake Epstein of TV's Degrassi stars in Spring Awakening, a Tony-winning musical about self-discovery and sexual awakening. Suzanne Chessler Special to the Jewish News j ake Epstein never has been to Detroit, but he fully expects the city to feel a bit like home. On tour with the Tony Award-winning musical Spring Awakening, Epstein is plan- ning to have lots of family and friends watch him on the stage of the Fisher Theatre. The local run, April 20-May 9, will be the closest to his Canadian home- town, Toronto. "I've already been in about 20 cities, and I have lots of friends in Windsor," says Epstein, 23, who plays one of the lead characters, Melchior, and is on his first tour in a stage, TV and film career that spans more than a decade. "This is a big Broadway musical with a lot of meaning and purpose behind it, and I think that's really rare today. It's a show that talks about sexual awakening for teenagers. "The story was written more than 100 years ago, but this theater piece is totally innovative. There's a band on stage, and everyone has a microphone to become the lead singer when he or she has a song to Broadway Comes To Detroit Broadway! Nederlander Detroit has announced its 2010-2011 Broadway in Detroit subscription season. Shows include the national tour premiere of West Side Story, Sept. 30- Oct.17, 2010, at the Fisher Theatre; the arena-rock love story Rock of sing." Spring Awakening, which won eight out of its 11 Tony nominations in 2007, is based on the 1891 Frank Wedekind play and features a score by Duncan Sheik, book and lyrics by Steven Sater, direction by Michael Mayer and choreography by Bill T. Jones. The coming-of-age tale deals with private yearnings, hopes and anguish. "My character is an atheistic intellec- tual in a small, provincial German town, and he's the one who has read everything about sex but has never experienced it," Epstein says. "The play is about his jour- ney toward finding love for the first time. "There's an intensity in Melchior that I relate to. What I love is that he's potentially `the ingenue' in the musical while also being dark and conflicted." Epstein wasn't thinking about theater at age 9 when tempted to audition for an arts school in Canada. Considering himself a "total jock," he thought the tryouts simply would be a way of cutting his regular classes. "I ended up getting in and meeting a drama teacher who sent me to my first professional audition," Epstein says. "I got the part, and my career kept snowball- ing. I got an agent and kept getting roles. I moved into television and was Jake Epstein (Melchior) and Christy Altomare (Wendla) on the [teen-oriented] from the Spring Awakening national tour. TV show Degrassi: The Next Generation [as Craig the rest of the family to be artistic. Mom Manning] for six years!' Kathy Kacer has written about history, Epstein, whose first professional theater particularly the Holocaust, for young read- experience was as a paperboy in a star- ers and just released her first adult book, filled Toronto staging of Our Town, also has Restitution: A Family's Search for Their appeared in productions of Oliver!, Dog Sees Heritage Lost in the Holocaust. God, Cinderella and Dangerous Liaisons. "I'm very close to my family, and I The actor, with television credits that often see my family because of something include The Zack Files, Crown Heights and Jewish," says Epstein, who went to Hebrew Paradise Falls, left Degrassi to study at the school, had a bar mitzvah and enjoyed National Theatre School of Canada. After Shabbat dinners regularly hosted at homes graduation, he spent a year doing various of different relatives. theater roles before being cast in Spring "I have an extended family that's very Awakening. close, and that plays a huge role in keeping Jamming with other musicians has things normal. I've grown up with the idea become a special benefit of this produc- of being grateful for any success." tion. A writer of plays and music, Epstein is Epstein plans to take a break after the comfortable with guitar, piano and drums. tour, maybe doing some leisurely traveling "My sister, Gabi, is a singer and actress, on his own. and we've performed together around "I'm figuring out where I'm going to Toronto," he says. live, and I'm figuring out my goals," he The actor-writer-musician jokes that says. "Just to make a living being an actor his dad, lawyer Ian Epstein, has allowed is pretty amazing." ❑ Ages, Nov. 9-21, 2010, at the Fisher; the musical Mary Poppins, a family Feb. 22-March 16, 2011, at the Fisher; and a brand-new 25th anniversary production of Les Miserables, March 22-April 3, at the Fisher. Subscription tickets may be purchased online at www. BroadwaylnDetroit.com or by calling the Fisher Theatre at (313) 872-1000, ext. 0. show perfect for the holidays, Dec.16, 2010-Jan. 2, 2011, at the Detroit Opera House; the 2008 Tony Award winner for Best Musical, In the Heights, Feb. 1-13, 2011, at the Fisher; the interna- tional dance sensation Burn the Floor, Spring Awakening runs April 20- May 9 at the Fisher Theatre in Detroit. Performances are at 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays and 7:30 p.m. Sundays. There is no evening perfor- mance May 9. $24-$79. (800) 982- 2787; www.broadwayindetroit.com . Jews 0111 " 11114 I Nate Bloom ark Special to the Jewish News XI Celebrity Passover wt The popularity of Twitter and blogs written by celebri- ties has resulted in a boomlet in P Passover-related I) items. Fashion designer Whitney Port, 25, the star of the real- Whitney Port ity show The City, tweeted: "Missing my family on Passover. I'm going to make charoset in honor of them." Also tweeting was actress Elizabeth Banks, 36, a convert to CI C 46 April 15 • 2010 Judaism: "Great seder last nite. Outfoxed though by scrappy kid in hunt for the afikomen." Actress Gwyneth Paltrow, 37, who was raised in her father's Jewish faith, posted this on her personal blog, which has a lot of diet advice: "Keeping kosher Gwyneth will be easy this Paltrow year now that I have discovered Claudia Roden's brilliant book, The Book of Jewish Food. ... The flavors are outstanding, and all of the recipes have been simple to prepare. [On my blog], I have two different versions of matzah brei for brunch, and we have found two gorgeous Napa Valley kosher wines sure to take your seder [meal] up a notch." New Flicks Opening Friday, April 16, are City Island and The Joneses, both black comedies. Island stars Andy Garcia as Vince Rizzo, an aspiring actor and prison guard, who discloses a personal secret in acting class and thereby sets off a Julianna chain of events that Margulies throws his life and his family's life into chaos. Julianna Margulies, 43, co-stars as Garcia's hot-tempered wife. Alan Arkin, 76, plays his acting coach. Demi Moore and David Duchovny, 49, co-star as a seem- ingly "perfect" cou- ple, the Joneses, who move into an upscale community along with their "perfect" David teenage kids. The Duchovny Jones family has the best of everything, and their neighbors try to keep up. The neighbors don't know that the Joneses are actually employees of a stealth marketing company.