Just two months after his recent YouTube pitch for Yeshiva University, actor Zach Braff, who had a “strong Conservative/Orthodox upbringing,” is entering the big league of Jewish theater: Woody Allen on Broadway.

On April 10, the former Scrubs star will make his Broadway debut in “Bullets Over Broadway” as David Shayne, a struggling writer who casts a mobster’s ditsy girlfriend in one of his plays in order to get his show produced. The musical adaptation of the 1994 Oscar-nominated film is not Braff’s first experience acting in a Woody Allen production: at 18, his first movie role was as Woody Allen and Diane Keaton’s son in “Manhattan Murder Mystery.”

In a recent essay in The New York Times, Braff reflected on his journey to acting, highlighting his theater bona fides and emotionally taxing childhood:

I was a melancholic child. Worried, anxious. I never felt as if I belonged anywhere, as if I were a foreign exchange student living among the other kids, who seemed predestined to love sports. Add to that alienation the fact that my parents were going through a divorce, and I was truly treading water. But in that junior high school auditorium, I felt like I’d discovered a secret I didn’t even know was being whispered. There was a place where I might belong: It was the Theater, and I was sold.

Best known for nine seasons as Dr J.D. Dorian on Scrubs, Braff is also famous for writing, directing, producing, and starring in “Garden State,” the 2004 movie set in his home state of New Jersey. His upcoming April premiere brings a new kind of Jersey Boy to Broadway–the Jewish kind.

Related: Zach Braff’s New Movie, “Wish I Was Here,” Has A Release Date!

The post Zach Braff On His New Role In “Bullets Over Broadway” And Being An Emo Kid appeared first on Jewcy.

Whether or not you think Zach Braff’s Kickstarter campaign last April was a bit bogus for an actor of his stature, I am pleased to report that we will be seeing him back on the big screen in the near future. Thanks to crowdfunding support from his adoring fans, Braff completed the rest of his film, and it’s now headed to debut at the Sundance Film Festival.

Braff emailed his backers (he reached his goal of $2,000,000) on Wednesday to announce that the film would debut at the highly acclaimed festival:

“”It is quite an honor,” he wrote. “It means so much to me to premiere this film at the very same festival where I premiered Garden State exactly 10 years ago.”

Wish I Was Here, co-written by Zach and his brother Adam, tells the story of a struggling actor married with children, still trying to find purpose in his life. The star studded cast includes Kate Hudson, Mandy Patinkin, and of course, his main bro, Donald Faison.

Best part? Even if you didn’t donate to his campaign, you can still follow Braff’s every Wish I Was Here move by joining the production community! Braff posted a message on the film’s new website, where he will add his videos, playlists, and photos from the set.

Now the only question is…Team Kate or Team Natalie? We shall see how the on-screen chemistry compares.

The post Zach Braff’s ‘Wish I Was Here’ to Debut at Sundance appeared first on Jewcy.

Zach Braff, who made a post-Garden State splash in April when he announced plans to fund a sequel to his 2004 coming-of-age-for-real-this-time epic via Kickstarter (it was successful), is headed to Broadway, Vulture reports. And not just any old Broadway show—a musical, directed by Woody Allen, adapted from his 1994 film Bullets Over Broadway.

Here’s the film’s trailer. Just picture Cusack as Braff, and you’re all set.

(Photo credit: CARL COURT/AFP/Getty Images)

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