ARTS&LIFE
MUSICAL THEATER

A

s his mother tells the story, Jeffrey Lodin started 
playing music on a Magnus Chord Organ at age 
3. By age 7, he was acting and starring in produc-
tions at his school, community theater and synagogue. 
“I was humming songs before I could talk. Instead of 
playing chords with the buttons on the organ, I could just 
play chords with my left hand. It was like speaking English,
” 
says Lodin, a composer, music director, arrang-
er and co-author of the musical The Pin-Up 
Girls, running at Meadow Brook Theatre now 
through May 15. “I would have rather played 
football with my brothers than practice piano. 
I always loved theater, but I never thought of it 
as a career choice in any form.
”
Following his bar mitzvah at Beth Torah 
Synagogue in North Miami Beach where he 
grew up, Lodin continued religious studies and started can-
torial school.
“What derailed me was the language. I couldn’t retain 
the Hebrew or speak it fluently to any degree at all. I didn’t 
understand what I was praying, and it just became rote. 
And the fact that those around me didn’t seem bothered 
that I didn’t understand it caused me to rebel and stop,
” 
Lodin said. 
During that same time, Lodin met with his chazzan who 
played Lodin the new soundtrack of Joseph and the Amazing 
Technicolor Dreamcoat.
“It blew my mind. ‘I can do that,
’” Lodin thought. “It sent 
me flying toward a career in musical theater, and I never 

Jeffrey Lodin’s unplanned 
 
musical theater career.
Jeffrey 
Lodin

JULIE SMITH YOLLES CONTRIBUTING WRITER

48 | MAY 5 • 2022 

To Israel 
and Back

DETAILS 
The Pin-Up Girls runs at Meadow Brook Theatre 
on the campus of Oakland University in Rochester, 
Mich. through May 15. Tickets range from $36 to 
$46 and are available by calling the Meadow Brook 
Theatre box office at (248) 377-3300 or going 
online at www.ticketmaster.com. Student discounts 
are available at the box office. Groups of eight or 
more should call (248) 370-3316 for group pricing. 
Masks are encouraged, but not required. Meadow 
Brook does not require proof of vaccine or proof of 
a negative COVID-19 test at this time.

Grace Choi, Brittany 
Jeffery, and Brooke 
Quintana in The Pin-Up 
Girls at Meadow Brook 
Theatre through May 15.

PHOTO BY SEAN CARTER PHOTOGRAPHY

