Jake Epstein Quotes

I want to be back on Broadway one day. That's a dream of mine. There's nothing like live theater, and I think it's so important for me to be able to be on stage with an audience that responds.

Probably from, like, my freshman year of high school, I had this desire to perform and also be involved in the show business industry.

I wanted to be performer; like, I used to dance at weddings. I felt acting was my calling, and that is something I wanted to do.

I have mainly come from a theatre background, I did 'Oliver' here I played the Artful Dodger and I did 'The Sound of Music.'

I have been a performer for as long as I can remember. I performed in Sunday school and church plays.

I auditioned for a play in fifth grade, and that's when I knew that I wanted to be a singer and performer.

Yes, yes, theater in general is just going to always be my first love, performing for a live audience.

I miss singing. I did Broadway forever.

I'd say that, first and foremost, I'm a performer; I started performing when I was four years old, and being on stage from a young age set me up.

I did a musical that I don't think anybody ever saw, called 'One Shining Moment,' and in that cast was Megan Mullally and Kevin Anderson.

My first big role was when I was 17 and I got the part playing Maria in 'West Side Story' in my school production.

I want to be like Sutton Foster, Kristin Chenoweth or Anne Hathaway and do everything that has to do with performing.

My first break wasn't professional - I was in 'The Sound of Music' when I was five. I played Gretel, the youngest one, because that was what kind of took off for me in terms of loving acting.

I did theater at Carnegie, and in Pittsburgh and New York.

I wanted to be a Broadway star.

I was in California, and I was going to UCLA, and I knew I certainly didn't have movie star looks. I remember seeing pictures and photos of Ethel Merman and Mary Martin, who were kind of average looking. I said, 'Well, that's for me, then, to go back to New York and try to be in musical comedy on Broadway.'

My first show in high school was 'The Music Man.' I was a junior. I played Harold Hill. I did the role at the University of Miami, too. I do love that musical. To do it in high school and college and then to do it professionally - I mean, come on!

I would definitely go back to 'Kinky Boots' because that family, I think, is so wonderful and incredible, and my role and my part were just so fun to play. But I would definitely love to do other shows as well.

When I was younger, all I wanted to do was be a singer, and then I got into a great acting class in New York and became obsessed with that.

I was thrown into a community production of 'Bye Bye Birdie' or something when I was a kid. I wanted to just build the sets, but I wasn't allowed to just build the sets unless I auditioned for the play. So I auditioned for the play and was thrown into the chorus. During the course of that I fell in love with it, and I never really turned back.

I'd done stage musicals for quite a few years, starting with 'Grease' in Auckland.

But I think what made me go into theater was seeing my mother onstage. The first thing she did was Mrs. Frank in 'The Diary of Anne Frank.' The second thing she did was a play about Freud called 'The Far Country.' She played a paralyzed woman in Vienna who goes to see Freud.

I was horribly shy all through grade school and high school. But somehow I got up the nerve to audition for one play in high school - 'Auntie Mame.' I got a small part as the fiancee who comes on in the end. I got laughs. I wasn't shy at all doing the part. I can do anything on stage and write it off as a character.

Secretly, I'm in awe of Broadway performers. I would love to perform at that level. I love the exchange with the audience. I love being able to sing and dance to express your emotions and the community and friendships that are formed when working on a theater piece.

It's true that my mom loved it when I played Joanie Cunningham in the musical 'Happy Days,' but I think she finally realized I am never going to do 'Oklahoma!'