Adam Epstein, who won a Tony Award for producing Hairspray before he was 30 and received other nominations for his work on revivals of Amadeus and The Crucible and adaptations of The Wedding Singer and Cry-Baby, has died. He was 49.
Epstein died Tuesday at Adventist Health hospital in Glendale after a brief battle with brain cancer, his family announced. He was in the midst of hosting his podcast, Dirty Moderate With Adam Epstein, when he fell ill.
When he was just 28, Epstein joined Margo Lion as a co-producer on the original Broadway production of Hairspray, which bowed in 2002 en route to collecting eight Tonys, including best musical, from 13 nominations. Originally starring Harvey Fierstein, it ran for more than 2,600 performances through 2009.
Epstein had started out on Broadway as an intern and casting assistant before serving as a production associate in 1997 on The Life, nominated for best musical. The next year, he produced the Tony-winning revival of Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge, starring Allison Janney and Anthony LaPaglia.
He followed in 1999 with Amadeus, starring Michael Sheen, and in 2002 with The Crucible, starring Liam Neeson and Laura Linney, before Hairspray, adapted from the John Waters’ movie, became a sensation.
“Adam was the youngest producer I had ever worked with when we met on Hairspray,” Jerry Mitchell, two-time Tony-winning choreographer, said in a statement. “I will always be grateful for his support and encouragement and care for all of us.”
The Wedding Singer, starring Laura Benanti and based on the Adam Sandler-Drew Barrymore film, and Cry-Baby, based on another Waters’ movie and starring Elizabeth Stanley, premiered in 2006 and ’08, respectively.
His theatrical productions garnered 12 Tonys and 46 nominations — in just the span of a decade.
Adam Keith Epstein was born on Sept. 7, 1974, in Miami Beach, Florida. His father ran a radiology practice, and his mother was a social worker. He attended Miami Country Day School and starred in musical productions of The Wiz and Jesus Christ Superstar.
“Who as a little boy wants to grow up to be a producer? Well, Adam did,” Waters said. “That’s what gives him such tremendous confidence. He’s always known what he wanted to do.
“Together, Adam and I had a hit, Hairspray, and a flop, Cry-Baby, and his enthusiasm for each was exactly the same. A cheerleader for his productions like no other.”
Epstein went on to New York University, where he graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in political science. While there, he interned for Rep. Peter Deutsch and Sen. Bob Graham, both Democrats from Florida.
While living in London in 2014-16, Epstein wrote a column called “Expat Enquiry” in which he offered opinions about politics and culture. He returned to the U.S. to attend Brown University, where he earned a master’s degree in American studies.
He launched a TV career as a political pundit on Fox News, where, as the liberal voice, sparred with right-wing commentators, and was an adjunct faculty member at NYU and a guest lecturer at Harvard University and Columbia University.
He premiered his Dirty Moderate podcast in 2021; the last episode ran Aug. 8.
Survivors include his parents, Bonnie and Marc; his brother, Brett; his sister, Logan; his nieces, Hazel, Sophie and Lucy; and his nephew, Oliver.
Services are set for 11 a.m. on Sunday at the Levitt-Weinstein-Blasberg, Rubin-Zilbert Memorial Chapels in North Miami Beach, followed by interment at Mount Nebo in Miami.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Dr. Timothy Cloughesy’s GBM (glioblastoma multiforme) research fund (#61893C) at UCLA here.
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