Seattle's 5th Avenue Musical Theatre Company looks ahead with their 2000 season before looking back. Jason Robert Brown's Tony Award winner Parade kicks off the season Sept. 27 with a run through Oct. 15.
Harold Prince directs this musical retelling of one of the most notorious crimes in American history, the murder of young Mary Phagan, which led to the persecution of innocent Leo Frank, a northern Jew in an anti-Semitic South. Brown wrote the lyrics and music with Tony Award-winning playwright Alfred Uhry (Driving Miss Daisy, Last Night of Ballyhoo) providing the book.
David Pittu, late of the national tour of Titanic, and Andrea Burns, recently of Off-Broadway's Saturday Night, play Leo and Lucille Frank, respectively. The company includes Adinah Alexander (Mrs. Phagan), Ray Aranha (Newt Lee), Kristen Cullen (Mary Phagan), Jeff Edgerton (Young Solider/Fiddlin' John), Donal Grody (Old Soldier/Judge Roan), Rick Hilsabeck (Governor Slaton), Daniel Frank Kelley (Frankie Epps), Keith Byron Kirk (Jim Conley), Randy Redd (Britt Craig), Peter Samuels (Hugh Dorsey), David Vosburgh (Luther Rosser/Floyd MacDaniel), John Leslie Wolfe (Tom Watson). Reprising their original Broadway roles are Klein as Essie, Edgerton as the Young Soldier, Wolfe as Watson and Aranha as Newt Lee. Original cast members returning in new roles are Alexander as Mrs. Phagan, Redd as Britt Craig and Samuel as Hugh Dorsey.
Choreographer Patricia Birch and designers Riccardo Hernandez (set) and Howell Binkley (lighting) reunited for the 2000 tour. Sound designer is Duncan Edwards, costume designer is Judith Dolan and Clayton Phillips is assistant to Prince.
Single tickets are $60-$17. The 5th Avenue Theatre Company is located at 1308 5th Avenue between Union and University Streets. For reservations, call (206) 292-ARTS. The 5th Avenue Theatre Company is on the web at http://www.5thavenuetheatre.org. *
A cavalcade of classic musicals will follow Parade. First, a holiday production of Cole Porter's Anything Goes runs Nov. 28-Dec. 17. Then 1776 will play March 6-25, 2001 with Gypsy finishing off the season May 1-20.
