1999-10-14
Playbill Online
Kenneth Jones
Parade, the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical whose short 1998-99 New York run was as heartbreaking as its storyline, will embark on a 2000 tour that will begin in Atlanta on June 13 and march to Pittsburgh, Denver and other markets.
Atlanta’s Theatre of the Stars and producer Christopher Manos will initiate the tour and coordinate bookings. The musical, which earned composer Jason Robert Brown and book writer Alfred Uhry Tony Awards, will be reconstituted by its original creative team, including director Harold Prince and the designers.
Word of the tour was announced by Uhry and his collaborators in May and June1999, but no bookings had been announced until recently.
Pittsburgh CLO announced Parade for Aug. 15/20, 2000, and Denver Center Attractions will offer the tour at the Buell Theatre Sept. 12-24, 2000. Manos told Playbill On-Line that other dates include:
* Memphis, TN, The Orpheum Theatre, one week beginning June 22, 2000.
* Dallas, TX, The Music Hall, two weeks beginning June 29.
* Green Bay, WI, The Weidner Center for the Performing Arts, one week beginning Aug. 22
* Chicago, IL, The Palace Theatre, one week beginning Sept. 5 (this date is not certain)
* Seattle, WA, Fifth Avenue Playhouse, three weeks beginning Sept. 26.
Stops in Boston and Los Angeles are also being planned. The tour will last a total of 16-18 weeks. Casting will begin in December.
Uhry, Prince and Brown had expressed hope earlier this year, around the time of the Tony Awards, that an eventual tour might return to Broadway.
Casting for the tour is not known, but of a possible return to the role of Lucille Frank (for which she earned a Best Actress Tony nomination), Carolee Carmello told Playbill On-Line (in September 1999): "I have heard from Hal, who said, ‘…We hope you’re available.’ It’s always sort of looming in my mind, only because I loved that show so much, I still love it, I felt a little frustrated at the way it all ended, so it would be nice to do it again. With a family, it’s hard to pick up and leave town for months at a time. It’s going to depend on what’s going on with my husband [actor Gregg Edelman] and what else is happening in my life at the time, so I can’t say whether I’ll be doing it or not, but I certainly wouldn’t rule out the possibility."
Carmello played the wife of a Northern-born Jewish man, Leo Frank, wrongly accused of killing a girl in anti-Semitic Atlanta. The story, set in 1913, is based on fact. Brent Carver played Leo, who was hanged by a mob prior to his expected pardon by the governor.
The serious-minded Parade received mixed reviews after its Dec. 17, 1998, opening at Lincoln Center Theatre’s Vivian Beaumont. The musical failed to find a larger audience and closed Feb. 28, 1999. It was a co-production between Livent (which has been swallowed by SFX Entertainment) and Lincoln Center.
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