Gallery Players Production of Tony-Winning Parade, With Jesse Manocherian, Opens Jan. 26 in Brooklyn

By Michael Gioia
26 Jan 2013

Jesse Manocherian
Jesse Manocherian

The Gallery Players, the award-winning Brooklyn theatre company now in its 46th season, present Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown's Parade, opening Jan. 26. Jesse Manocherian stars.

Directed by Hans Friedrichs, the limited engagement continues through Feb. 17.

Manocherian (The Hidden Sky at Prospect Theatre Company) plays Leo Frank with Jennifer Lorae (Fiddler on the Roof at St. Louis Muny) as Lucille Frank and Jenavene Hester (The Sound of Music at Paper Mill Playhouse, How the Grinch Stole Christmas) as Mary Phagan.

Parade, according to Gallery Players, "is based on the true events of the 1913 trial of Leo Frank, a Jewish man from Brooklyn who runs a pencil factory in Marietta, Georgia. Frank is accused of the murder of 13-year old Mary Phagan, a factory worker under his employ. Already guilty in the eyes of everyone around him, a sensationalist publisher, determined district attorney and a janitor’s false testimony seal Leo’s fate. His only defenders are a governor with a conscience, and eventually, his assimilated Southern wife who finds the strength and love to become his greatest champion. 2013 marks the 100th anniversary of the crime."

The cast also includes Mike Backes (Jersey Boys Las Vegas, Next to Normal national tour) as Hugh Dorsey; Bill Brooks as Older Soldier/Judge Roan; Elizabeth Burton (Elf national tour) as Iola Stover; Patrick Dunn as Britt Craig; Ashley Harris as Monteen; Leah Jennings (Gallery Players' Oliver!) as Mrs. Phagan; Lorinne Lampert (Gallery Players' A Man of No Importance, The Drowsy Chaperone) as Sally Slaton; Danny Lindgren as Tom Watson/Detective Starnes; Eric Morris (Gallery Players' A Man of No Importance) as Governor Slaton; Mark Mozingo (Golden Boy of Blue Ridge at Prospect Theatre Company) as Young Soldier/Frankie Epps; Spencer Robinson (Gallery Players' A Man of No Importance) as Luther Rosser/Officer Ivey; Emma Ruck as Essie; Crystal Sha'nae as Minnie McKnight/Angela; and Anthony Wills, Jr. (Master Harold...and the Boys at Gloucester Stage) as Jim Conley/Newt Lee/Riley.

Parade features a Tony Award-winning score by Brown and a Tony-winning book by Uhry. The musical was also nominated for the 1999 Tony Award for Best Musical.

The Gallery Players production of Parade reunites director Friedrichs, producer Robert Earle Jones, choreographer Christine O'Grady and musical director Julianne Merrill (A Man of No Importance). Their previous collaborations — Gallery's A Man of No Importance in 2012 and The Drowsy Chaperone in 2011 — garnered numerous New York Innovative Theatre Awards.

Other members of the creative team include scenic designer Chris Minard, costume designer Mina Hyun-ok Hong, lighting designer Dan Jobbins, sound designer Julian Evans and hair designer Jon Jordan.

The show is associate produced by Abby Wolbe, assistant directed by Max Gosman, assistant choreographed by Kristen Marie and stage managed by Hollace Jeffords.

The Gallery Players is located at 199 14th Street (between Fourth and Fifth avenues) in Park Slope, Brooklyn. For more information and tickets, call (212) 352-3101 or visit GalleryPlayers.com.