Euan Morton Will Play Leo Frank in Parade for Ford's Theatre in DC; Season Announced

By Kenneth Jones
March 16, 2011

The 2011-12 season at historic Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC, will open with a new production of the Tony Award-winning musical Parade starring Tony nominee Euan Morton as Leo Frank.

Stephen Rayne (Ford's Sabrina Fair) will direct the production of librettist Alfred Uhry and composer-lyricist Jason Robert Brown's musical about a miscarriage of justice in early 20th-century Georgia, when a Jewish outsider was wrongly accused of murder. A love story emerges thanks to the strength, passion and loyalty of Leo's wife, Lucille.

Morton earned a 2004 Tony nomination as Best Actor for his work in Taboo, and appeared in the Broadway revue Sondheim on Sondheim in 2010. He recently starred in Chess at Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA.

Harold Prince co-conceived the original Broadway production. The property was later revised for a London staging that later played Los Angeles. Karma Camp will choreograph the DC staging, to run Sept. 23-Oct. 30. The Ford's season was posted on its website.

Parade is a co-production with Theater J, Washington's Jewish theatre, and is presented in association with the Anti-Defamation League and Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington.

A Ford's Theatre commission by Richard Hellesen, author of Ford's Theatre's One Destiny, Investigation: Detective McDevitt and The Road from Appomattox, will premiere in January 2012.

Here's the Ford's Theatre season at a glance:

A Christmas Carol
By Charles Dickens
Adapted by Michael Wilson
Directed by Michael Baron
Original staging recreated by Mark Ramont
Nov. 18-Dec. 31
"Join the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future as they lead the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge on a journey of transformation and redemption. Originally conceived by Michael Baron, this music-infused production captures the magic and joy of Dickens' Yuletide classic. Acclaimed Washington stage actor Edward Gero returns to play Scrooge…"

A Ford's Theatre Commission
By Richard Hellesen
Jan. 20-Feb. 12, 2012
"In his fourth commission for Ford's Theatre, playwright Richard Hellesen explores the two documented encounters between Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln during a period of national crisis. As Lincoln searches for a way to end slavery in the summers of 1863 and 1864, Douglass' rhetoric and conviction challenges the president to envision a post-emancipation world. Together, the men imagine not only a unified nation but a society that brings truth to the Constitution's assertion that all men are created equal."

1776
Book by Peter Stone
Music by Sherman Edwards
Choreographed by Michael Bobbitt
Directed by Peter Flynn
March 9-May 19, 2012

 "With quick-witted dialogue and a playful score, 1776 dramatizes the impassioned debates of Philadelphia's Second Continental Congress. As George Washington sends updates from the military front, patriots John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson attempt to persuade the 13 colonies to separate from British rule."

Visit fordstheatre.org.