Music and Lyrics byJason Robert Brown
Co-conceived byHarold Prince
Directed byHarold Prince
The story of PARADE is true. It is a love story against all odds, a love story played against a backdrop of religious intolerance and political injustice that make this musical so emotionally compelling. PARADE takes place in Atlanta, Georgia in 1913. Leo Frank -- a young Jew from New York -- has moved to the South to marry a local woman named Lucille Selig, and to manage a pencil factory. Their quiet life explodes when Leo is falsely accused of murdering Mary Phagan, a 13-year-old girl who works at his factory. Instantly, he finds himself at the center of "The Trial of the Century.” With the scars of the Civil War still raw, the passions of the local citizenry are easily stirred by political opportunists and an overzealous press. The trial is an outrage. Leo is sentenced to death on flimsy evidence. Lucille launches a heroic campaign at home and in the North to save her husband. Leo's case is re-investigated and his sentence is commuted. But what happens next remains an American tragedy. PARADE has strong personal significance for Alfred Uhry, who was born and raised in Atlanta and had previously drawn on the world of Southern Jews for both Daisy and Ballyhoo. Uhry's great uncle was the owner of the factory where Leo Frank worked and his grandmother (a model for Miss Daisy) was a friend of both the Frank and Selig families.
