He grew up in Miami and was producer of Broadway’s ‘Hairspray.’ Adam Epstein dies at 49

Adam Epstein, who co-produced Broadway’s Tony-winning “Hairspray” and served as a political pundit, died on Aug. 13 from brain cancer, his family said. Epstein, who died in Burbank, California, was 49.

“He was a role model for so many,” said Epstein’s friend and prolific theater director Richard Jay-Alexander. “He inspired a lot of people.”

Born in Miami on Sept. 7, 1974, Epstein attended Miami Country Day School, where his indomitable self-confidence made him stand out.

“It shone from him in the way he spoke and the way he moved,” said former classmate and Broadway actor Erik Liberman in an email interview with the Miami Herald, “I was in awe of his self-possession.”

Epstein excelled academically, developing a deep interest in American history and politics that would follow him through his life. It was music and theater, though, that would come to define those early years.

Theatrical aspirations

Epstein would lock himself in his room after school and belt out “every Andrew Lloyd Webber musical you could think of,” recalled his younger brother, Brett Epstein.

“He had theater and performing in his blood,” said Epstein’s uncle Wayne Cypen.

Epstein MC’d his own bar mitzvah, strolling through the crowd and asking guests questions as a videographer captured the moments. Epstein would later DJ parties for friends in the neighborhood, recalled Brett. A devotee of Miami’s Y100 (WHYI-FM) radio station, Epstein would “play broadcaster” as he DJ’d.

“He was always miming these personalities,” said his brother.

At Miami Country Day near Miami Shores, Epstein’s love of performance drew him to the stage. He participated in plays throughout high school. In his senior year, Epstein was cast as the lead in the musical “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”

What struck Brett most about his brother, more even than his love of performance, was “this honest confidence and courage,” he said. Being a gay kid in 1980s Florida wasn’t easy, but “he was never self-conscious,” recalled his brother. “Everything he did was a ‘ta-da! Here I am, love it or leave it,’ and everybody loved it.”

After high school, Epstein attended New York University, where he fed his political passions. He spent his summers interning for South Florida Congressman Peter Deutch and Sen. Bob Graham, and eventually graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in political science.

On Broadway

But, again, Epstein was drawn to performance.

He began as an intern and an assistant at a Broadway casting company, before skyrocketing to prominence as a co-producer of the hit musical “Hairspray” alongside Margo Lion. “Hairspray” debuted on Broadway in 2002, when Epstein was 28. The smash hit, based on the 1988 John Waters movie, received 13 Tony nominations and won eight, including Best Musical.

“Oh, my God, look at this kid,” Jay-Alexander remembered thinking upon first meeting Epstein. “I didn’t have that kind of success until I was in my 30s and 40s and he’s got it now.”

Jay-Alexander, who has directed stage productions and concert tours for Barbra Streisand, Bernadette Peters and Kristin Chenoweth, quickly learned that Esptein was more than just a “crazy young kid,” he said. “He had content.”

Epstein produced several plays on Broadway during his career, including original runs of “The Wedding Singer” and “Cry-Baby,” another musical adapted from a John Waters film. He also produced revivals of “The Crucible,” “A View from the Bridge” and “Amadeus.” His plays earned a total of 46 Tony nominations and 12 awards.

Political interests

Even at the peak of his theatrical success, Epstein couldn’t shake his interest in politics. “I used to read political books, not scripts, when I was producing on Broadway,” Epstein recalled in an appearance on the Michael Steele podcast earlier this year.

Actress Donna Vivino, remembered meeting Epstein for the first time during the national tour of “Hairspray” in which she was a cast member. “A seemingly innocuous conversation about the Actors’ Equity labor union led to an evening long debate about national politics,” she recalled in an email to the Miami Herald.

It was no surprise, then, that when Epstein’s theater career waned, he turned his attention to politics full time.

In 2014 Epstein began to publish Expat Enquiry, a column of political and cultural observations. He returned to school, earning a masters in American studies from Brown University and soon began to appear on Fox News as a liberal commentator, clashing with a host of right-wing personalities. In 2021, Epstein launched his own podcast, Dirty Moderate, where he shared his political opinions and interviewed politicians and pundits.

Throughout Epstein’s career, “he was never too busy to mentor and encourage emerging artists,” said New World School of the Arts grad Liberman, who had roles in Broadway’s “War Paint” and “LoveMusik.” This love of teaching and mentorship was no doubt inherited in part from Epstein’s godfather, renowned South Florida press agent Charlie Cinnamon, who died in 2016.

READ MORE: The face of South Florida theater, Charlie Cinnamon, dies at 94

“Charlie taught me to do favors in show business and do it with generosity,” Epstein told The Hollywood Reporter after Cinnamon’s death, “not simply because you want something in return.”

Epstein’s sense of mentorship extended beyond show business and into the lives of those who were closest to him. Even in childhood “there was such safety in having him go first,” recalled his brother Brett, as if Epstein could explore “the cave without a flashlight and come back and say, ‘OK, we’re clear.’ ”

Brett said that this sense of safety, born of Adam’s confidence and generosity, continued throughout his life. It was “the sensation he gave everybody,” his brother said..

Vivino, Epstein’s friend from his time on Broadway, recalled a quote from Pema Chodron that Epstein had shared with her years ago: “Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know,” she wrote in an email to the Miami Herald. “It stuck with me then and it will stick with me forever.”

Services and survivors

Epstein’s survivors include his mother, Bonnie Cypen Epstein, his father Dr. Marc Epstein, his brother Brett Epstein and his sister Logan Epstein.

Services will be held on Sunday, Aug. 18, at Levitt-Weinstein-Blasberg Memorial Chapel, 18840 W. Dixie Hwy, North Miami Beach.

The family requests donations in Epstein’s name may be made to Dr. Timothy Cloughesy’s Glioblastoma Multiforme research fund.

This story was originally published August 17, 2024 at 5:00 AM.