PARADE Runs 2/20-28 at Hamilton Stage

Fans of reality-based theatre are going to get a powerful dose when the Tony Award-winning musical Parade comes to Rahway's Hamilton Stage Feb. 20-28.

Presented by Bullet Theatre Collaborative, Parade depicts perhaps the most explosive story line of any modern American musical - the mob lynching of a Georgia man wrongly accused of rape and murder.

It's also a tender love story.

With book by acclaimed playwright Alfred Uhry (Driving Miss Daisy, The Last Night of Ballyhoo) and a rousing, haunting score by Jason Robert Brown (Songs For a New World, Bridges of Madison County), Parade shines a powerful light into a dark corner of U.S. history.

Performances are at UCPAC's Hamilton Stage, 360 Hamilton Street, Rahway, Feb. 20, 21, 27, 28 at 8:00 p.m. and Feb. 22 at 3:00 p.m., with a student school matinee Feb. 26 at 10:00 a.m.

Tickets are $20 and can be bought online at www.ucpac.org, by calling (732) 499-8226 or at the UCPAC Box Office, 1601 Irving Street, Rahway. A $12 student/senior ticket is available at the Box Office by presenting appropriate ID.

The play spotlights the 1915 trial of Leo Frank, a Brooklyn-raised Jew living in Atlanta, accused of murdering teenager Mary Phagan, a factory worker under his employ.

Victimized by the prevailing prejudice of the day, Leo's fate is sealed by a hysterical media frenzy and a janitor's false testimony. His only defenders are a governor with a conscience and his assimilated Southern wife who finds the strength and love to become his greatest champion.

For Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alfred Uhry, the story held an intriguing aspect. His grandparents owned the pencil factory where Leo Frank and Mary Phagan worked, and his grandmother was a close friend of Leo's widow, Lucille.

"When I was a child, when anybody would mention Leo Frank, people of that generation would get up and walk out of the room," Uhry told interviewer Harper Strom in 2000. "It was a story that everybody, particularly Jews in the South, stayed away from because it was so horrible. But now, all these years later, it seems the time to do it."

The relevance of Parade to today's emotionally-charged political landscape has not escaped the members of Bullet Theatre Collaborative, a Central Jersey company of young, professional stage artists gaining a reputation for presenting topical plays that pack a punch.

"Live theatre lets people have a conversation about things they often don't feel comfortable talking about in public," says director Greg Scalera. "A lot of the same issues and attitudes common to Leo Frank's time are still being dealt with in our America today."

The 22-person cast is choreographed by Joshua Schnetzer, with musical direction by David Seamon and Tony Mowatt.

Despite its sobering subject, Parade explores the endurance of love and hope against all odds.

Lucille Frank lived until 1957, continuing to proclaim her husband's innocence and requesting an official pardon from the State of Georgia - finally granted in 1986. According to Alfred Uhry, she never remarried.

"She always signed her checks 'Mrs. Leo Frank'. She never shied from who she loved. That was her devotion and pride."