In 1999, a new Harold Prince musical composed by newcomer Jason Robert Brown that debuted at The Vivien Beaumont Theatre at Lincoln Center gained critical if not popular praise in its telling of the story of Leo Frank, a Brooklyn Jewish transplant to Atlanta working as factory manager for the National Pencil Company who, in 1913, was framed for the rape and murder of a 13-year-old child employee. Brown’s debut score gained some attention for its meshing of different styles from Southern bluegrass, gospel, and R&B to pop/rock, jazz, and burlesque, and put him on the map as a composer to watch. Alfred Uhry’s book (an Atlanta native who grew up with the story of Leo Frank—his great-uncle actually owned the pencil factory where the incident occurred) produced a book that cuts Southern culture to the core, exposing it’s fractured existence full of racism, anti-Semitism, and it’s stubborn refusal to this day to accept their loss of the Civil War. All these factors contribute to the dark and sad themes of this provocative piece. The musical won Tony awards for Uhry’s book and Brown’s score but lost Best Musical to the feel-good dance concert Fosse. Even the liberal entertainment world was still unready to fully embrace this embarrassing chapter of history.
In 2023, the musical was revived by New York City Center starring Ben Platt (Dear Evan Hansen) and Micaela Diamond (The Cher Show) and transferred to Broadway where it redeemed itself by winning Best Revival of a Musical and Best Director for Michael Arden. This production is the basis of this national tour ending its run at the Kennedy Center.
Max Chernin (Platt’s understudy in the NY company) is fascinating as Frank. Uhry shades his character honestly, and Frank does himself no favors distancing himself from the locals with his Northern Brooklyn Jew superiority, almost proud to be a defiant outsider (“How Can I Call This Home?”, “Leo at Work”), much to the chagrin of his devoted and totally assimilated Southern Jewish wife Lucille, played to perfection by Talia Suskauer (a superior Elphaba in her last pass through the area in the 2020 national tour of Wicked, shut down days after its Baltimore engagement at the Hippodrome).
Refusing to celebrate Gorgia’s Southern Memorial Day and offering to work instead, this stubborn decision changed the course of Frank’s life. For while the celebratory Memorial Day parade and festivities are occurring outside, a chance encounter with a 13-year-old-employee who came in to collect her weeks wages—a whopping $1.20. The girl, Mary Phagan (Olivia Goosman) would end up dead in the basement by that night, and Southern small-town prejudices would throw the blame at her Jewish boss.
Chernin is superb in portraying the dichotomy of the cold and icy distance of Frank before the murder charges to the sympathetic honesty of the Frank during and after his trial (and the glimpses of the former that creep into the latter during his times in the prison cell). Chernin’s singing voice is clear, alternately strong and delicate, soaring yet grounded, and technically superior to Platt’s, who always earns admittedly-deserved bonus points for his easy and engaging celebrity. Chernin does it totally on his talent and physicality in a star-making performance. His tour de force is during the frightening set-piece “Come Up to My Office”, where Chernin transforms Frank in front of our eyes to the lecherous, dangerous character that district attorney Hugh Dorsey and his underage witnesses are painting him to be. Extra credit to Chernin who gets no break in this draining performance, as director Arden makes him stay on stage in his prison cell, stewing in character, for the audience to ogle the entire intermission.
Suskauer is a revelation in a role that shows her prowess off so much more than the last juggernaut show she was seen in here. Wicked sets Elphaba up with a no-lose lineup of banger songs to hit out of the ballpark and win the audience’s sympathy. As Lucille Frank, Suskauer has to work on her own, growing from good girl (“What Am I Waiting For?”) to strong woman (“You Don’t Know This Man”) to revolutionary advocate for her husband (“Do It Alone”) as she takes matters into her own hands to advance his failing appeals from prison, to his equal and partner (“All the Wasted Time”). Her powerful voice makes the most of Brown’s duets, gaining equal success with unfamiliar material.
Several of the relatively large ensemble land strong performances. As the victim Mary Phagan, Olivia Goosman is sweet, guileless, and sympathetic. Jack Roden is engaging as her entusiastic would-be suitor Frankie Epps, equally as sympathetic whether courting her or memorializing her. His strong pop voice makes the best of all his vocal moments.
Of the adult ensemble, Ethan Riordan (at this performance) as prosecuter Hugh Dorsey, who leads a corrupted, self-serving offense, is authoritative and smarmy. Griffin Binniker plays Tom Watson, powerful and controlling editor of The Jeffersonian with an almost Bible-thumping religious fervor.
Michael Tacconi as hungry, disreputable reporter Britt Craig seizes upon the town’s innate predisposition towards anti-semitism to paint the picture of a vicious Jewish pedophile and murderer with every shade of yellow in his journalism palette (“Real Big News”—Brown’s most clever number of his score, where he uses big, bright, showy Cab Caloway musical rhythms to tell the darkest, most flagrantly deceptive story within the show).
Jenny Hickman as the victim’s mother delivers an exceptionally moving ballad in “My Child Will Forgive Me”, as she testifies in court, admitting her regret that she failed to protect her from the evils of men. And Danielle Lee Greaves has outstanding moments on the stand, one testifying (“Minnie’s Testimony”) and one retracting it for the governor (“Minnie McKnight Reprise”)
At this performance, Brian Vaughn as Governor Slayton becomes the second act agent of hope as he entertains Lucille’s pleas to reopen the case and vacate the jury’s decision. His subsequent investigation reveals patterns of coaching, coercing, and outright threatening that took the limited, fabricated evidence against Frank and turned it into what seems to be the original Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia. And Alison Ewing as his wife Sally profits the most from sheer good timing with the inadvertent best line of any touring musical in 2025. When urging him to do what is right and reopen the case at the risk of his political future, she tells him, “I’d rather be the wife of a former governor than First Lady to a chicken”. The mostly full house of the Kennedy Center erupted in thunderous applause. #KnowYourAudience.
Technically, the team keeps it simple but effective. Dane Laffrey’s unit set is basically a stationary central platform with tables and chairs that come on and off the and around it to suggest various locations. Cold opening as an ironically festive parade route, this basic piece is enhanced by Sven Ortel’s vivid sepia-toned rear projections that become alternately the rear walls, the outside, and a posterboard of facts and figures about the case.
Susan Hilferty & Mark Koss’ earth-toned costumes are simple but appropriate for the working class characters and compliment the projections and wood tones of the set.
Heather Gilbert’s lighting design utilizes primarily horizontal beams so as not to interfere with Ortel’s critical projections and it gives an appropriately clear and dramatic effect.
The unusual issue with the show is Jon Weston’s sound design. Usually crystal clear to flawless at the Kennedy Center, the sound balance here seems a bit off, heavier on orchestra, lighter on vocalists, handicapping some of the early storytelling that relies on recitatives and lyrics that are not part of the Great American Broadway Songbook. The pros like Chernin, Suskauer, Craig and even newcomer Roden succeed best and come across clearest (the brighter tenors and powerhouse Suskhauer seem to fare better than the baritones and richer toned singers).
As usual, Arden’s award-winning direction, aided by Lauren Yalango-Grant and Christopher Cree Grant’s graceful choregraphy is fluid and poetic as they blends scenes together fluidly and seamlessly while clearly delineating what the platform space becomes next. Even though the light comes in planes, Arden effectively uses all 360 degrees of 3D floor space to aid his storytelling in both lights and shadows.
Uhry’s story is packed with details and nuances that require a little more attention than the typical American musical, and the twists and turns all come into play in the second act. When Governor Slaton’s investigation reveals that the law and the court pretty much fixed the trial, her reversed the death penalty to life in prison. Sadly, Southern “justice” took matters into their own hands.
For this revival, the closing important projection informs the audience that Frank’s case was reopened in 2019 and it is still open today. Hopefully, even in this horrid political climate in which we live, Frank will one day soon get the retribution he has deserved for over 100 years.
Photos courtesy of Joan Marcus
Running Time: Approximately 2 hours 45 minutes with one intermission
Parade currently plays through September 7, 2025, at the Eisenhower Theatre at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 2700 F Street NW, Washington DC 20566. For tickets, call the box office at 202.467.4600 or purchase online.