After an acclaimed run at New York City Center, Jason Robert Brown's Parade is on Broadway, once again starring Tony Award winner Ben Platt and Tony Award nominee Micaela Diamond. Get Parade tickets on New York Theatre Guide.
The current production of Parade first went up off Broadway in 2022, as part of New York City Center's Encores! program presenting rarely revived musicals. The 2023 transfer marks its first Broadway revival since its 1998 premiere, when Parade played for just over two months. It was a short, but lauded, run, with Parade receiving nine Tony Award nominations. The show won two, for Best Book of a Musical (for Alfred Uhry) and Best Original Score (for Jason Robert Brown).
Parade is the only musical the two wrote together. Uhry is best known for writing the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Driving Miss Daisy, which was staged for the first time on Broadway in 2010 with Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones.
Parade was Brown's first Broadway musical, and he has composed four others since: 13, The Bridges of Madison County, Honeymoon in Vegas, and most recently, Mr. Saturday Night starring Billy Crystal. He is also known for the Off-Broadway musical The Last Five Years, which is regularly revived across the U.S. and the world.
What is the Parade Broadway musical about?
The Parade musical dramatizes the real-life trial, imprisonment, and ultimate lynching of Jewish American factory manager Leo Frank (Platt). In 1913, Frank was accused of raping and killing a 13-year-old female worker at his Georgia factory. The musical explores how local and national press sensationalized the trial, the anti-Semitism the trial and its coverage incited, and how the ordeal — especially being, likely, falsely accused — affects Frank and his family.
Who is Ben Platt?
Ben Platt is an actor best known originating the title role of Dear Evan Hansen, for which he won a Tony in 2017 at 23 years old. Until 2022, he was the youngest solo actor to ever win the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical (Myles Frost, who won for MJ at 22, has since claimed the record). Platt is also known for his screen roles in the Pitch Perfect film series and on the Netflix show The Politician; Parade on Broadway marks his first return to the big stage since Dear Evan Hansen.
His role as Leo Frank earned him a 2023 Tony Award nomination alongside Micaela Diamond as Lucille Frank. The show earned an additional three nominations, including Best Musical Revival and Best Direction of a Musical for Michael Arden.
Tickets to Parade in New York are on sale now.
