Chicago Tribune
- Highly Recommended
"...Not only is their singing glorious (as is that of many others in this cast, including, especially Ramone Nelson, Trevor James and Robert Knight), but the two performers essaying the married couple of Leo and Lucille Frank have both a self-obfuscating humility and a rigorous lack of sentimentality encapsulated in their performances."
Chicago Sun Times
- Highly Recommended
"...Set between 1913-17 in rural Georgia, the musical is an indictment of a world where habeas corpus doesn’t exist, the judicial system is corrupt and innocent minorities are imprisoned and executed in the name of honor and justice. Directed to a fine, piercing point by Michael Arden, it all feels far too familiar."
Chicago Reader
- Highly Recommended
"...First produced in 1998, Parade features a supple and soaring score by Jason Robert Brown (who took the assignment from original director Harold Prince after Stephen Sondheim turned it down) and a well-constructed book by Alfred Uhry (Driving Miss Daisy) that handles the many characters and agendas in the story with efficiency and intelligence. The original Broadway production scored Tony Awards for Brown and Uhry. The current production, directed by Michael Arden, won the 2023 Tony for best revival of a musical and for Arden."
Stage and Cinema
- Highly Recommended
"...In 1913, in Atlanta, Georgia, the body of Mary Phagan, a thirteen-year-old factory laborer, was found in the basement of a pencil factory. On the flimsiest of cases, a Brooklyn transplant, Leo Frank was arrested and charged with the crime. His ensuing trial, conviction, commutation, and grisly lynching is one of many low points in our nation’s history. It led to the formation of the Anti-Defamation League and the rebirth of the Klu Klux Klan and has inspired multiple movies, documentaries, books, a TV mini-series, and oddly enough, a Broadway musical with a Tony-winning book by Alfred Uhry and a Tony-winning score by Jason Robert Brown."
Let's Play Theatrical Reviews
- Highly Recommended
"...The production unflinchingly explores the pervasive biases and injustices that led to Frank's tragic lynching in 1915. For those unfamiliar with this real-life tragedy, the thought-provoking narrative unfolds with Leo Frank, the superintendent at the National Pencil Company, meticulously preparing the end-of-day financial records in his dimly lit office, when a young girl, Mary Phagan, comes into his office for her pay. As she leaves, a balloon she is carrying flows into the air, dramatizing her disappearance."
Around The Town Chicago
- Highly Recommended
"...I think it has been 7 or 8 years since the Chicago area had an opportunity to see "Parade", the heart-wrenching story about Leo Frank. The musical with a book by Alfred Uhry and Music & lyrics by Jason Robert Brown is now onstage at the CIBC Theatre. When last seen, it was at Writers on a much smaller scale, and the Broadway In Chicago production, which is the New York City Center touring company is a finely tuned well staged telling of a story that will have an affect on each and every patron."
Buzz Center Stage
- Highly Recommended
"...Walking into the CIBC Theatre, the first thing any audience member will notice is Scenic Designer Dane Lafrey's stage. We are unmistakably in a courthouse - with a platform at the center and various forms of seating surrounding it. For those familiar with the story, you might make the connection that the musical itself heavily revolves around a court case, and perhaps the creative team is leaning into that theme."
Third Coast Review
- Highly Recommended
"...The first national tour of the musical Parade arrived in Chicago this week with impressive credentials. Based on a true story set in Atlanta, it involves the 1913 rape and killing of a 13-year-old girl in the basement of the pencil factory where she worked. The musical's focus is on the main suspect: Leo Frank, the factory's manager. He's Jewish and a recent Brooklyn transplant. Frank is arrested and charged with the crime. Although his sentence is later reduced from the death penalty to life imprisonment, a few local townsfolks have something else in mind."
PicksInSix
- Highly Recommended
"...The national touring production of the 2023 Tony Award-winning musical revival of "Parade," an arresting examination of the grisly rape and murder of a thirteen year-old girl worker in a Georgia pencil factory on April 27, 1913, opened Wednesday at the CIBC Theatre. You may ask why it is vitally important to experience this brilliant Alfred Uhry/Jason Robert Brown work, directed by Michael Arden, about a deplorable act, the subsequent miscarriage of justice and rush to judgment in a case that the facts of which are still being examined to this day."
Chicago Culture Authority
- Highly Recommended
"...That lyrical honesty, matched by Alfred Uhry’s searing book, is probably why the 1998 production won Tony Awards for Best Book and Best Original Score. But that production also closed after only three months, suggesting the subject matter might have been too depressing for Broadway audiences. (The bankruptcy of co-producer Livent the month before opening did not help matters.)"
Splash Magazine
- Highly Recommended
"...The revival of the 1998 Pulitzer Prize-winning Parade, which garnered two Tony Awards, is an acclaimed, monumental production. Two-time Tony Award winner, Academy Award® winner, and Pulitzer Prize winner Alfred Uhry wrote the book. At the same time, Jason Robert Brown penned the emotive music and lyrics for Parade, both the 1998 and 2023 versions. It is currently playing at the CIBC Theatre, 18 West Monroe Street, Chicago, from August 5th through August 17th. In 2023, it won the Tony Award for Best Musical Revival."
BroadwayWorld
- Highly Recommended
"...Ultimately, though, the entire cast forms an incredibly in-sync ensemble committed to telling a beautiful story that, unfortunately, remains relevant over a century later. As Arden reminds us at the end of the show, the fight for justice-both for Leo Frank and so many others-remains ongoing."
NewCity Chicago
- Highly Recommended
"...The leads-Max Chernin as Leo and Talia Suskauer as Lucille-take this somber story and successfully transform it to a devoted love story that manages to rise above the vitriolic hated surrounding them."
