Parade – City Center

2022 Annual Gala Presentation

Nov 1 -6, 2022

Starring Ben Platt (Dear Evan Hansen) and Micaela Diamond  (The Cher Show)

Jason Robert Brown (Songs for a New World) was a Broadway novice when legendary dramatic innovator Hal Prince approached him with an unlikely project put forth by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Alfred Uhry (Driving Miss Daisy): a musical interpretation of the 1913 trial, conviction, legal appeal, and eventual lynching of Jewish factory manager Leo Frank in Marietta, Georgia. Brown and Uhry both won Tony Awards for their juxtaposition of brutal historical detail with hauntingly pastoral lyricism, but the production itself closed after just 84 performances.

Almost a quarter of a century later, Parade’s battle cry to reexamine the bitter roots of American bigotry couldn’t be more timely. The starry Gala presentation cast features Emmy, Grammy and Tony Award winner Ben Platt (Dear Evan Hansen) as Leo Frank, and Micaela Diamond (The Cher Show) as his young wife Lucille, an assimilated Southern Jewish woman who becomes her husband’s most vocal crusader. Tony-nominated director Michael Arden (Once on This Island, Deaf West’s Spring Awakening) takes a documentary approach to the courtroom drama of the piece, incorporating trial photography and projections to starkly contrast the sweeping beauty of Brown’s Tony-winning score.

Ben Platt back on Broadway

Ben Platt, Parade, City Center, New York City, Micaela Diamond, Alfred Uhry, Broadway Musicals, Broadway Memorabilia