Chorus Member Writes About Working with Jason Robert Brown in PARADE Concert

On February 16, Manhattan Concert Productions brought the Drama Desk and Tony Award-winning score of PARADE back to Lincoln Center. PARADE was brought to life for one night only at Avery Fisher Hall. Three-time Tony Award winner and original composer Jason Robert Brown conducted a star-studded cast and full chorus, joined by Olivier Award nominee Gary Griffin as director, and Tom Murray as music supervisor.

Manhattan Concert Productions gives school and student choruses the opportunity to perform with a professional Broadway cast and orchestra. One of these singers, Katie John, writes about her experience in The Guardian.

A long time fan of Jason Robert Brown, John took advantage of the opportunity to learn from her favorite composer. While Brown is at the premiere of THE LAST FIVE YEARS, his musical supervisor, Tom Murray is tasked with transforming separate choirs into an angry mob. Brown tells her the next day that turning a chorus from singers into players in a drama is vital.

"I've worked with Tom a long time and part of what we have is the ability to get people to think musically and to connect the music to the drama. What's thrilling about musical theatre - and what it makes it really really hard - is that you need to be fluent in both of those languages."

John is nervous about the music that sounds straightforward but on the page looks complicated. She asks Brown if he is concerned about amateurs performing his complex score.

"No," Brown says. "You put enough singers together with enough passion, it will sound passionate. We always thought of it as an American opera, so we always wanted it to be very large in scale, and when MCP came to me it seemed like the perfect opportunity. To sit here with 220 people in the choir all sort of screaming at me is exceptionally gratifying. And to do it where we did it 16 years ago at Lincoln Center means a lot."

After many music rehearsals with Brown, the day of the concert arrives for John and the 220 other singers in the chorus.

"It's halfway through the first number Old Red Hills of Home before I take stock of what is happening," says John. "The man whose music I have long cherished is waving his baton in my direction. Sandwiched between a giant chorus and a sizeable orchestra, the sound is overwhelming, intense, moving. Beside me, a teenage girl's eyes well up as we belt out the final note of the song, all 200 of us coming off the note in perfect synchronicity."

This concert performance of PARADE featured a chorus of over 200 singers from the across the United States; the enlarged forces of the New York City Chamber Orchestra; and a full professional Broadway cast, including JEREMY JORDAN, as Leo Frank; LAURA BENANTI, as Lucille Frank; KATIE ROSE CLARKE, as Mrs. Phagan; JOHN ELLISON CONLEE, as Hugh Dorsey; CHARLIE FRANKLIN, as Young Soldier / Frankie Epps; DAVIS GAINES, as Old Soldier / Judge Roan; JOSHUA HENRY, as Jim Conley; CAITLIN HOULAHAN, as Iola Stover; ANDREA JONES-SOJOLA, as Minnie McKnight / Angela / Nina Formby; RAMIN KARIMLOO, as Tom Watson; ANDY MIENTUS, as Britt Craig; NATHANIEL STAMPLEY, as Newt Lee / Riley; and EMERSON STEELE, as Mary Phagan.

With a book by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Alfred Uhry, a score by Brown, and co-conceived by Tony Award winner Harold Prince, PARADE tells a controversial story of the 1913 trial of Jewish factory manager Leo Frank (Jordan), who was accused and convicted of raping and murdering a 13-year-old employee, Mary Phagan, in Atlanta, GA. PARADE was Brown's first Broadway production.

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