Jason Robert Brown

Michael Darvell’s review here. PARADE Reviewed by: Michael Darvell First I moan about the dearth of new musicals in London and then two come along in as many weeks. With When Midnight Strikes (at the Finborough Theatre until September 29) and now Parade at the Donmar Warehouse, things are definitely looking up. What with the staging of Take Flight at the Menier Chocolate Factory last month, it hasn’t been a bad summer for original musicals. In fact Parade is not exactly new, but it is new to London. Originally staged in New York back in 1998 by its co-conceiver, theRead More »

Natasha Tripney’s review is here. PARADE Donmar Warehouse, London, 14 September-24 November 2007 Three stars This dark, unusual musical about murder and anti-Semitism in the Deep South was first seen in New York in 1998. It ran for only short time, less than ninety performances, and though it’s a complex and intriguing piece of theatre, it’s easy to see why it closed so quickly. It is not a musical that makes for easy viewing. Frothy it is not. Parade is set in Atlanta, Georgia, in the early years of the 20th century. It is Confederate Memorial Day and a 13Read More »

Kate Baxter’s review here. At the Donmar, Parade is an unusually dark Broadway musical by Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown, based on the notorious case of Leo Frank in Georgia in 1913. A factory superintendent and Jewish Yankee, Frank was found – very dubiously – guilty of the murder of a 13-year-old worker, Mary Phagan. When a miscarriage of justice was announced he was lynched – essentially by the revived Ku Klux Klan. Choreographer-turned-director Rob Ashford’s production gets off to a stiff start, before launching into nightmarish, whirling stomps. The prologue, set in the Civil War, seems largely pointlessRead More »

Susannah Clapp’s review here. Sunday September 30, 2007 Susannah Clapp The Observer Parade Donmar, London WC2 No one should rain on Parade. It’s that rare thing, a really surprising musical. It’s new (transferring to the Donmar after a hugely successful Broadway debut); it’s based on a true and grim story; it packs a huge sound, and a big cast, into a small space that vibrates with disturbance. Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry have dramatised the case of Leo Frank, a factory manager in Atlanta convicted – probably wrongly – of the murder of a young girl in 1913. ParadeRead More »

Christopher Hart’s stupid review here. The Sunday Times September 30, 2007 PARADE Christopher Hart at the Donmar Warehouse, WC2 Two stars Parade is a newish (1998) American musical about the real-life trial, conviction and lynching of a Jew called Leo Frank in Georgia in 1915. His alleged crime was to have raped and murdered a 13-year-old called Mary Phagan. Musicals about paedophile killers don’t come along every day, it’s true, and on Broadway the show ran for only 84 nights. So, if this is your kind of thing, you’d better hurry. Much of the piece is essentially a courtroom dramaRead More »