| Parade | |
|---|---|
 Broadway Playbill cover | |
| Music | Jason Robert Brown |
| Lyrics | Jason Robert Brown |
| Book | Alfred Uhry |
| Basis | Historical events in Atlanta from 1913 to 1915 |
| Premiere | December 17, 1998 (1998-12-17):Vivian Beaumont Theater |
| Productions |
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| Awards | |
Parade is amusical with abook byAlfred Uhry and music and lyrics byJason Robert Brown. The musical is a dramatization of the 1913 trial and imprisonment and 1915lynching of Jewish AmericanLeo Frank inGeorgia.
The musical premiered onBroadway in December 1998 and wonTony Awards for Best Book and Best Original Score (out of nine nominations) and sixDrama Desk Awards. After closing on Broadway in February 1999, the show has had a US national tour and a few professional productions in the US and UK. Its 2023 Broadway staging was nominated for six Tony Awards, winning two, includingBest Revival of a Musical.
The musical dramatizes the 1913 trial of Jewish factory managerLeo Frank, who was accused and convicted ofraping and murdering a thirteen-year-old employee, Mary Phagan. The trial, sensationalized by the media, arousedantisemitic tensions inAtlanta and the U.S. state ofGeorgia. When Frank's death sentence was commuted to life in prison by the departingGovernor of Georgia,John M. Slaton, in 1915 due to his detailed review of over 10,000 pages of testimony and possible problems with the trial, Leo Frank was transferred to a prison inMilledgeville, Georgia, where alynching party seized and kidnapped him. Frank was taken to Phagan's hometown ofMarietta, Georgia, and he was hanged from an oak tree. The events surrounding the investigation and trial led to two groups emerging: the revival of the defunctKKK and the birth of the Jewish Civil Rights organization theAnti-Defamation League (ADL).[1]
DirectorHarold Prince turned toJason Robert Brown to write the score afterStephen Sondheim turned the project down. Prince's daughter, Daisy, had brought Brown to her father's attention. Book writerAlfred Uhry, who grew up in Atlanta, had personal knowledge of the Frank story, as his great-uncle owned the pencil factory run by Leo Frank.[2]
The musical's story concludes that the likely killer was the factory janitor Jim Conley, the key witness against Frank at the trial. The villains of the piece are the ambitious and corrupt prosecutorHugh Dorsey (later the governor of Georgia and then a judge) and the rabidly anti-semitic publisherTom Watson (later elected a U.S. senator). Prince and Uhry emphasized the evolving relationship between Frank and his wife Lucille.[3] Their relationship shifts from cold to warm in songs like "Leo at Work/What am I Waiting For?," "You Don't Know This Man," "Do it Alone," and "All the Wasted Time". The poignancy of the couple, who fall in love in the midst of adversity, is the core of the work. It makes the tragic outcome – the miscarriage of justice – even more disturbing.[4]
The show was Brown's first Broadway production. His music, according to criticCharles Isherwood, has "subtle and appealing melodies that draw on a variety of influences, from pop-rock to folk to rhythm and blues and gospel."[3]
In Marietta, Georgia, during theAmerican Civil War, the sounds of drums herald the appearance of a young Confederate soldier who bids farewell to his sweetheart as he goes to fight for his homeland. The years pass, and it is 1913. The soldier has become an old one-legged veteran preparing to march in the annualConfederate Memorial Day parade ("The Old Red Hills of Home"). As the parade begins ("The Dream of Atlanta"), Leo Frank, a Jewish man fromBrooklyn, New York, is deeply uncomfortable living here due to his religion, college education and the cultural differences between the North and South ("How Can I Call This Home?"). His discomfort spills into his relationship with his wife Lucille, a more assimilated Jewish Georgian, who has planned an outdoor meal spoiled by Leo's decision to go in to work on a holiday. Meanwhile, two local teens, Frankie Epps andMary Phagan, ride a trolley car and flirt. Frankie wants Mary to go to the movies with him, but Mary playfully resists, insisting her mother will not let her ("The Picture Show"). Mary, who has recently been laid off, leaves to collect her final paycheck from the pencil factory managed by Leo.
Lucille bemoans the state of her marriage, feeling unappreciated by a man so wrapped up in himself and unfulfilled in life; she wonders whether Leo was the right match for her ("Leo at Work" / "What Am I Waiting For?"). Mary arrives in Leo's office to collect her paycheck. That night, police Detective Starnes and Officer Ivey rouse Leo from his sleep, and without telling him why, demand he accompany them to the factory, where Mary has been found raped and murdered in the basement. The police immediately suspect Newt Lee, the African-American night watchman who discovered the body ("Interrogation"). Lee, under interrogation, maintains his innocence, but he inadvertently directs Starnes' suspicion upon Leo, who did not answer his telephone when Lee called him to report the incident. Leo is arrested, but not charged. Mrs. Phagan, Mary's mother, becomes aware of Mary's death.
Reporter Britt Craig sees in Mary's murder the possibility of a career-making story ("Big News"). Craig attends Mary's funeral, where the townspeople of Marietta are angry, mournful, and baffled by the shattering tragedy ("There is a Fountain" / "It Don't Make Sense"). Frankie andTom Watson, editor ofThe Jeffersonian, anextremist right-wing newspaper, swear revenge on Mary's killer ("Tom Watson's Lullaby"). GovernorJohn Slaton pressures the local prosecutor Hugh Dorsey to get to the bottom of the crime. Dorsey, an ambitious politician with a "lousy conviction record", together with Starnes and Ivey, interrogate Newt Lee, learning nothing. Dorsey releases Newt, reasoning that "hanging another Nigra ain't enough this time. We gotta do better." He blames Leo and sends Starnes and a reluctant Ivey to find eyewitnesses ("Something Ain't Right"). Craig eagerly begins an effective campaign vilifying Leo ("Real Big News").
Leo meets with his lawyer Luther Z. Rosser, who vows to win the case. Meanwhile, Dorsey makes a deal with factory janitor and ex-convict Jim Conley to testify against Leo in exchange for immunity for a previous escape from prison. Lucille, hounded by reporters, collapses from the strain and rebukes Craig when he attempts to obtain an interview ("You Don't Know This Man"). She tells Leo that she cannot bear to see his trial, but he begs her to stay in the courtroom, as her absence would make him look guilty.
Leo's trial begins, presided over by Judge Roan. A hysterical crowd gathers outside the courtroom, as Watson spews invective ("Hammer of Justice") and Dorsey begins his prosecution ("Twenty Miles from Marietta"). He produces a series of witnesses, most of whom give trumped evidence fed to them by Dorsey. Frankie testifies, falsely, that Mary said Leo "looks at her funny", a sentiment echoed verbatim by three of Mary's teenage co-workers, Iola, Essie and Monteen ("The Factory Girls"). In a fantasy sequence, Leo becomes the lecherous seducer they describe ("Come Up to My Office"). Mary's mother testifies ("My Child Will Forgive Me"), and the Franks' housekeeper Minnie McKnight claims Leo came home in an agitated state the night of the murder and that his marriage to Lucille was abusive. The prosecution's star witness, Jim Conley, claims that he witnessed the murder and helped Leo conceal the crime ("That's What He Said"). Leo is desperate. As Dorsey whips the courtroom into a frenzy, Leo delivers a heartfelt statement, pleading to be believed ("It's Hard to Speak My Heart"), but it is not enough. He is found guilty and sentenced to hang. The crowd breaks out into a jubilantcakewalk as Lucille and Leo watch, terrified ("Summation and Cakewalk").
It's now 1915, as Leo appeals the case. The northern press strongly disapproves of the way the trial was conducted, as African-American domestics wonder if the reaction would have been as strong if the victim had been Black ("A Rumblin' and a Rollin'"). Lucille tries to help Leo with his appeal but reveals crucial information to Craig, leading to an argument between herself and Leo ("Do it Alone"). She finds Governor Slaton at a party ("Pretty Music") to advocate for Leo, accusing Slaton of being a fool or a coward if he accepts the verdict. Meanwhile, Watson tells Dorsey that he will support his bid for governor if he makes one. Dorsey and Judge Roan go on a fishing trip, where they discuss the political climate and the upcoming election ("The Glory").
The governor re-opens the case, and Leo and Lucille rejoice ("This Is Not Over Yet"). Slaton visits the factory girls, who admit to their exaggeration (“Factory Girls" (reprise)), and Minnie, who says Dorsey intimidated her and made her sign a statement (“Minnie McKnight's Reprise”). Slaton also visits Jim Conley, who is in jail as an accessory to the murder. Conley sticks to his story despite its noticeable inconsistencies with the evidence, and along with his Chain Gang, refuses to give Slaton any information ("Blues: Feel the Rain Fall"). A year later, after deliberation, Slaton commutes Leo's sentence to life in prison in Milledgeville, Georgia, a move that ends his political career. The citizens of Marietta, led by Dorsey and Watson, are enraged and riot ("Where Will You Stand When the Flood Comes?").
Leo is at a prison work-farm. Lucille visits, and he realizes his deep love for his wife and how much he has underestimated her ("All the Wasted Time"). Later, a party of masked men (including Starnes, Ivey, Frankie, and the Old Confederate Soldier) arrive and kidnap Leo. They take him to Marietta and demand he confess to the murder on pain of death. Leo refuses, and although Ivey is convinced of his innocence, the group prepares to kill him. As his last request, Leo has a sack tied around his waist, since he is wearing only his nightshirt, and asks Ivey to give his wedding ring to Lucille. The group hangs him from an oak tree ("Sh'ma"). Eight months later, on Confederate Memorial Day 1916, a remorseful Britt Craig gives Leo's ring, which has been delivered to him anonymously, to Lucille. He is surprised that she has no plans to leave Georgia, now governed by Dorsey, but she refuses to let Leo's ordeal be for nothing. Alone, she gives in to her grief, but takes comfort in believing that Leo is with God and free from his ordeal. Outside, the annual Memorial Day Parade begins ("Finale").
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| Character | Broadway | U.S. Tour | London | Broadway Revival | U.S. Tour |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | 2000 | 2007 | 2023 | 2025 | |
| Leo Frank | Brent Carver | David Pittu | Bertie Carvel | Ben Platt | Max Chernin |
| Lucille Frank | Carolee Carmello | Andréa Burns | Lara Pulver | Micaela Diamond | Talia Suskauer |
| Frankie Epps | Kirk McDonald | Daniel Frank Kelley | Stuart Matthew Price | Jake Pedersen | Jack Roden |
| Young Confederate Soldier | Jeff Edgerton | Charlie Webb | Trevor James | ||
| Mary Phagan | Christy Carlson Romano | Kristen Bowden | Jayne Wisener | Erin Rose Doyle | Olivia Goosman |
| Hugh Dorsey | Herndon Lackey | Peter Samuel | Mark Bonnar | Paul Alexander Nolan | Andrew Samonsky |
| Governor John Slaton | John Hickok | Rick Hilsabeck | Gary Milner | Sean Allan Krill | Christopher Shyer |
| Britt Craig | Evan Pappas | Randy Redd | Jay Armstrong Johnson | Michael Tacconi | |
| Mr. Peavy | Don Stephenson | Peter Flynn | Mark Bonnar | Christopher Gurr | Brian Vaughn |
| Luther Rosser | J. B. Adams | David Vosburgh | Stephen Webb | ||
| Officer Ivey | Tad Ingram | Tim Salamandyk | Jackson Teeley | Ben Cherington | |
| Prison Guard (Mr. Turner) | Randy Redd | David Coolidge | Max Chernin | Ethan Riordan | |
| Jim Conley | Rufus Bonds, Jr. | Keith Byron Kirk | Shaun Escoffery | Alex Joseph Grayson | Ramone Nelson |
| Newt Lee | Ray Aranha | Eddie Cooper | Robert Knight | ||
| Riley | J. C. Montgomery | C. Mingo Long | Douglas Lyons | Prentiss E. Mouton | |
| Tom Watson | John Leslie Wolfe | Norman Bowman | Manoel Felciano | Griffin Binnicker | |
| J. N. Starnes | Peter Samuel | Tim Howard | William Michals | Jason Simon | |
| Iola Stover | Brooke Sunny Moriber | Siri Howard | Joanna Kirkland | Sophia Manicone | |
| Essie | Emily Klein | Celia Mei Rubin | Emily Rose DeMartino | ||
| Monteen | Abbi Hutcherson | Sandra DeNise | Zoe Rainey | Ashlyn Maddox | Bailee Endebrock |
| Angela | Angela Lockett | Carla J. Hargrove | Malinda Parris | Courtnee Carter | Oluchi Nwakorie |
| Minnie McKnight | — | Danielle Lee Greaves | |||
| Judge Leonard Roan | Don Chastain | Donald Grody | Steven Page | Howard McGillin | Evan Harrington |
| Old Confederate Soldier | |||||
| Mrs. Frances Phagan | Jessica Molaskey | Adinah Alexander | Helen Anker | Kelli Barrett | Jenny Hickman |
| Sally Slaton | Anne Torsiglieri | Elizabeth Brownlee | Stacie Bono | Alison Ewing | |
| Nurse | Adinah Alexander | Anne Allgood | — | Florrie Bagel | Caroline Fairweather |
The musical premiered on Broadway at theVivian Beaumont Theater atLincoln Center on December 17, 1998, and ended its limited run on February 28, 1999, after 39 previews and 85 regular performances. Directed byHarold Prince, it starredBrent Carver asLeo Frank,Carolee Carmello as Lucille Frank, andChristy Carlson Romano as Mary Phagan.Judith Dolan designed costumes for the production.[5]
Most critics praised the show, especially the score.[6] However, the public and some critics received the show coolly. When the show closed, co-producerLivent[7][8] had filed for bankruptcy protection (Chapter 11).Lincoln Center was the other producer solely responsible for covering the weekly running costs.[9]
A US national tour, directed by Prince, started at theFox Theatre inAtlanta, Georgia. It ran from June to October 2000, with Jason Robert Brown conducting at some venues.[10] It starredDavid Pittu as Leo,Andrea Burns as Lucille, Keith Byron Kirk as Jim and Kristen Bowden as Mary.[11][12]
The first major production in the United Kingdom played at theDonmar Warehouse from September 24 to November 24, 2007.[13] It was directed byRob Ashford and starredLara Pulver as Lucille,Bertie Carvel as Leo,Jayne Wisener as Mary andStuart Matthew Price as Young Soldier/Frankie.[14] Pulver was nominated for the 2008Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical and Carvel was nominated for Best Actor in a Musical. A double-CD cast recording of this production has been released by First Night Records. The recording includes new material written by Brown for the production and contains all songs and dialogue from the Donmar production. The large Broadway orchestration was reduced by David Cullen and Brown to a nine-piece ensemble consisting of two pianos, accordion, percussion, clarinet, horn and strings.[15]
Another off-West End production opened on August 10, 2011, for a 6-week engagement ending September 17, at theSouthwark Playhouse's Vault Theatre. It was directed byThom Southerland, with musical staging by Tim Jackson, starring Alastair Brookshaw as Leo,Laura Pitt-Pulford as Lucille, and featuring Simon Bailey as Tom Watson and Mark Inscoe as Hugh Dorsey.[16]
The City Center production started previews at Broadway'sBernard B. Jacobs Theatre on February 21, 2023 and opened on March 16. Platt and Diamond reprised their roles as Leo and Lucille Frank. The revival completed its limited run on August 6, 2023, with 21 preview performances and 169 regular performances.[17] Platt and Diamond appeared onMSNBC'sMorning Joe to announce the transfer.[18] Reprising their City Center roles were Krill, Nolan, Johnson, Feliciano, Grayson, and Doyle. Joining them wereKelli Barrett as Mrs. Phagan,Howard McGillin, who played Luther Rosser at City Center, as Old Soldier/Judge Roan, and Jake Pedersen as Frankie Epps.[19] On the night of the show's first preview, members of the neo-Nazi groupNational Socialist Movement protested against the production outside the theater.[20] A cast album for the production was released byInterscope Records on March 23, 2023.[21] The recording was nominated for aGrammy Award forBest Musical Theater Album.[22]
The revival received mostly positive reviews, including those inThe New York Times ("well-judged and timely"),Time Out New York ("cause for celebration"),The Guardian ("dynamic and moving"),Entertainment Weekly ("more poignant and powerful than ever"),The New York Post ("Brown's finest music, and Platt's most heart-wrenching work ... Diamond, whose combination of fragility and power is thrilling for an actress so young, brings an electricity to her duets with Platt"),Variety ("theatrically thrilling"),New York Stage Review ("beautifully executed"),New York Theatre Guide ("uniformly terrific cast ... [Platt and Diamond] deliver");Charles Isherwood dissented inThe Wall Street Journal, writing: "Even a first-rateParade cannot disguise the conceptual problems".[23] The production was nominated for six Tony Awards, winning two forBest Musical Revival andBest Direction of a Musical.[24]
A national tour of the 2023 production began technical previews atProctor's Theatre inSchenectady, New York in January 2025, with an official opening at theOrpheum Theatre inMinneapolis, Minnesota. Arden's direction and the production's creative team was retained. Seven cast members from the Broadway production continued with the tour; three retained their roles, and four stepped into roles they understudied in New York, including Max Chernin as Leo Frank.Talia Suskauer starred as Lucille.[25] The tour is scheduled to end on September 7, 2025 at theKennedy Center inWashington, D.C.[26]
On February 16, 2015, a concert production ofParade was staged atAvery Fisher Hall inLincoln Center by Manhattan Concert Productions, directed byGary Griffin and conducted by composer Jason Robert Brown.Jeremy Jordan andLaura Benanti starred as Leo and Lucille, withRamin Karimloo as Tom,Joshua Henry as Jim,Andy Mientus as Britt, Emerson Steele as Mary,Katie Rose Clarke as Mrs. Phagan, John Ellison Conlee as Hugh,Davis Gaines as Judge Roan/Old Soldier,Eric Anderson as Detective Starnes, andAlan Campbell as Governor Slaton.[27]
New York City Center stagedParade as the gala concert presentation of its 2022/2023 season, with abenefit performance on November 1 and a run continuing through November 6, 2022.Ben Platt andMicaela Diamond played Leo and Lucille Frank.Michael Arden directed and incorporated projections and photography of the real-life trial in the production.[28] Other notable cast members includedJohn Dossett as Old Soldier/Judge Roan,Manoel Felciano as Tom Watson,Jay Armstrong Johnson as Britt Craig,Sean Allan Krill as Governor Slaton,Jennifer Laura Thompson as Sally Slaton,Erin Mackey as Mrs. Phagan,Gaten Matarazzo as Frankie Epps,Alex Joseph Grayson as Jim Conley, Erin Rose Doyle as Mary Phagan,Howard McGillin as Luther Rosser andPaul Alexander Nolan as Hugh Dorsey.[29] Jason Robert Brown conducted the onstage orchestra.[30] Script and score changes from the 2007 Donmar production were retained.[31] Reviews for the run were strongly favorable,[32] withSteven Suskin giving it 5 out of 5 stars and writing inNew York Stage Review: "Rather than leaving its audience suitably impressed but emotionally unmoved as in prior viewings, Michael Arden’s spare but meticulous production unleashes the gripping theatricality of the writing that has heretofore been trapped within."[31] Juan A. Ramírez wrote inThe New York Times that Platt and Diamond's rendition of "This is Not Over Yet" was a "powerhouse for the ages. Their commanding vocals are matched by a confident production that revives the best of the original while pointing at the possibility of growth, and hope."[33]
Parade was staged in May 2003 at theOrange County School of the Arts inSanta Ana, California, in a production directed by Ryan Mekenian and produced bySusan Egan.[34] It was mounted at the Neighborhood Playhouse inPalos Verdes Estates, California, from July 9, 2008. The production was directed by Brady Schwind. The production starred Craig D'Amico as Leo, Emily Olson as Lucille andAlissa Anderegg as Mary.[35]
The Donmar production transferred to theMark Taper Forum, Los Angeles, California, in September 2009, for a run through November 15, 2009. Pulver reprised her role as Lucille oppositeT. R. Knight as Leo. The cast also includedMichael Berresse,Christian Hoff,Hayley Podschun,Rose Sezniak andPhoebe Strole.[36] In 2015, to commemorate the centenary of Frank's lynching,Kennesaw State University's theatre department produced two amateur concert performances of the musical, one each at Marietta'sStrand Theatre and Leo Frank's synagogue,The Temple, in Atlanta.[37]
A German language production at theTheater Regensburg in Regensburg, Germany, played for a dozen performances from April to July 2023. It was directed and choreographed by Simon Eichenberger with translations by Wolfgang Adenberg and starred Alejandro Nicolás Firlei Fernández as Leo and Fabiana Locke as Lucille.[38]
| Year | Award Ceremony | Category | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Laurence Olivier Award | Best New Musical | Nominated | |
| Best Actor in a Musical | Bertie Carvel | Nominated | ||
| Best Actress in a Musical | Lara Pulver | Nominated | ||
| Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical | Shaun Escoffery | Nominated | ||
| Best Director | Rob Ashford | Nominated | ||
| Best Theatre Choreographer | Nominated | |||
| Best Sound Design | Terry Jardine and Nick Lidster | Nominated | ||