Hunter Parrish awakens on Broadway

If you're a fan of Showtime's "Weeds," as I have been since the series debuted four seasons ago, you're probably quite aware of the emergence of Hunter Parrish (right, photo by Joan Marcus), who plays elder son Silas Botwin, as one of the show's more intriguing characters.This season Silas a) discovered the gym b) discovered a disdain for shirts c) began an affair with a much older woman and d) became a man in more ways than just the physical. In short, Silas has had a fantastic season (as has the show itself). And Parrish, a 19-year-old Virginia native, isn't having such a bad year either. Last week he joined the cast of Broadway's Spring Awakening in the leading role of Melchior Gabor.He was supposed to join the cast next week, but he was ready to go, so he made his Broadway debut a week early. I had a phone interview with Spring Awakening producer Tom Hulce last week, and he mentioned just how amazing he thought Parrish was. "Hunter is going to surprise a lot of people, especially with that voice," Hulce said.Parrish talks about his theater geekness with New York magazine hereBroadway.com has a good video of Parrish in rehearsal here. Parrish's voice is a nice surprise.And now here's a video of Parrish discussing his Spring Awakening experience.Visit the official Spring Awakening site here.For tickets to the launch of Spring Awakening's national tour in San Francisco, click here.