Posted on October 27, 2007 at 10:53 am

John Nathan’s article here.

London Parade to Release Cast Recording
By John Nathan
24 Oct 2007

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Bertie Carvel and Lara Pulver as Leo and Lucille Frank
photo by Johan Persson

A cast recording of the London Donmar Warehouse production of Parade is scheduled to be released in November.

The U.K. premiere of the Jason Robert Brown/Alfred Uhry Tony-winning musical opened at London’s Donmar on Sept. 24 following previews that began Sept. 14.

In addition to the double CD, which will include two new songs written for the London production, the release will include a DVD of interviews with book-writer Uhry and composer Jason Robert Brown with contributions from director Rob Ashford and the Donmar’s artistic director Michael Grandage.

Parade is based on the true story of Leo Frank, a Jewish factory owner falsely convicted of murdering a girl in Atlanta in 1913. The London cast sees Bertie Carvel (The Man of Mode, The Life of Galileo) make his musical debut as Leo, and Lara Pulver, who starred in the Menier Chocolate Factory production of Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years, take on the role of Leo’s wife Lucille.

The cast also features Helen Anker (On The Town); Mark Bonnar (Philistines); Norman Bowman (Guys and Dolls); Shaun Escoffery (Les Misérables); Joanna Kirkland (The Woman in White); Gary Milner (Evita); Steven Page (Sweeney Todd); Malinda Parris (Caroline, or Change); drama school graduate Stuart Matthew Price; Zoe Rainey (Guys and Dolls); Celia Mei Rubin (Guys and Dolls); Stephen Webb (Guys and Dolls); and Jayne Wisener in her stage debut.

Parade received its world premiere at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater in 1998 under the directorship of Harold Prince. The show received nine Tony Award nominations but closed before Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry won Tonys for Best Score and Best Book, respectively.

In 1996 Uhry also won a Tony for his play The Last Night of Ballyhoo and an Oscar for the film version of his Off-Broadway Pulitzer-winning play Driving Miss Daisy.

Jason Robert Brown’s work includes the song cycle Songs for a New World. It is expected that his latest musical 13, which received its world premiere at Los Angeles’s Mark Taper Forum in January, will arrive in New York in 2008.

Design for Parade, which is booking until Nov. 24, is by Christopher Oram.

For more information, visit www.donmarwarehouse.com.