Interview: Talia Suskauer of PARADE NATIONAL TOUR at Broadway In Chicago

I interviewed WICKED Broadway veteran Talia Suskauer about her leading role as Lucille Frank in the current national tour of Jason Robert Brown's PARADE — a tour staging of the 2023 Broadway revival starring Ben Platt and Michaela Diamond. 

How did you get involved with this tour? 

I saw the show on Broadway in 2023 when it was out and I actually went with my mom and we had both never seen PARADE. A lot of people have never seen PARADE before. It's rarely done. 

I was absolutely blown away, and I think I've always kind of lived with the music in my head. I've listened to the cast album since I was a kid. I've always loved the score and loved seeing it live. And then when the tour was announced, I was like, “Wouldn't that be really cool if I got to lead that tour and do that?”

And about a year later, I got to audition. And so you just have to speak those dreams into existence. 

I read that you actually started performing at your local temple. I’m curious what it means to you as a Jewish person (like your interviewer) to be doing this show. 

I think it's a conversation in theater and casting that we've been having over the past few years about “correct casting”, what that means, like culturally correct casting. And a lot of times I feel like Jews are left out of that conversation.

But it was really important to this creative team and this casting team to cast authentically, because these were real people. And there's this just inherent thing when you're a part of a community, and you're a part of a culture. And, you know, we say like Yiddish words on stage, and no one had to explain that to us, you know what I mean? There's a certain sense of community and culture that exists within us that can't be taught. 

I really love the commitment to that from the team. And it feels amazing to be able to stand up there proudly and wear a Star of David around my neck every night, as a real Jew, playing a Jew who was real, as well, and represent. 

But it is hard; it does come with a cost.  Because we're telling a story about deep Jewish trauma, and that trauma kind of lives within us anyway. So it does cost us something every night. But I feel proud to do it. And I'm happy to do it. 

What kind of research did you do before you started performing in the show, and how do take care of yourself when you're performing in a show like this? Because I've seen PARADE before, and it's obviously a very, very heavy show. 

I think the whole world right now feels like we're in the Twilight Zone. 

So I think to be doing this show right now that takes place in the early 20th century, some of the stuff feels so current, which is kind of crazy. I'm like, “Whoa, this happened in the show. And then also this feels like it happened yesterday in America. “

So it is interesting to be telling this American Jewish story that feels very cyclical. It feels like we're kind of back, unfortunately. It's hard. 

Research-wise, there's a great book by Steve Oney, who's a lawyer, who is also the top, top guy on the Leo Frank and Mary Phagan case. And he wrote a great book called AND THE DEAD SHALL RISE that's massive.  And I honestly couldn't get into it that much. It's a massive book.

But there's amazing podcasts out there [on the subject]. There's actually this incredible podcast called the MOST NOTORIOUS! podcast. And the host actually interviewed Steve Oney. And it's like two and a half hours between the two episodes. And so I listened to that. I listened to that several times. And it's just interesting, the facts of the whole case. 

There's not much on Lucille Frank, who I play in the show. But I was able to find out a little bit about her and her family and her upbringing. And you know, she lived the rest of her life in Georgia, didn't leave after her husband died.

And what was really cool is that when the show went to Atlanta, we actually got to be in Atlanta, where our story takes place, and do the show for a week. And we went to this amazing museum called the Breman Museum. And they have an incredible archive of letters that they've collected from Leo and Lucille. 

And so I got to go there and  pick them up with my hands and read them. It was amazing. So it was cool to kind of experience that midway through our contract, that burst of information that was given to us.

What was the musical or cast recording that made you say, “musical theater is for me?” 

I don't know if I had a defining moment, because I feel like it was always the thing. lMy mom raised my sister and I on some of the cast albums that she was raised on. She went to see CHESS in the West End when she was a kid; she went to see PHANTOM. And so I was listening to CHESS and PHANTOM and JOSEPH in the car when I was a kid. 

And then I just fell in love with it. And then it was just whatever the newest thing was. When WICKED came out, I was obsessed with the album. 

I was an obsessive kid. So I was always listening to the newest thing over and over and over again. I know that's not a specific answer. But I feel like I was just kind of always listening to musical theater. I can't really pinpoint one.

I have to ask you about WICKED because you played Elphaba for a few years on tour, and then you made your Broadway lead debut as her. What was it like stepping into her green skin, particularly considering that now is such a pivotal time for WICKED and it’s everywhere and you were doing that role just before the movie came out?

It feels really cool and crazy that WICKED is pop culture now. Because it feels like it's always been like my pop culture. It's always been mainstream for me and theater kids everywhere. 

It feels really cool and weird to be sharing that with the whole world. It was an amazing experience. And I feel very honored to be able to be a part of a legacy of women that I was obsessed with growing up. I'll never take that for granted. It's a real honor. And I'm proud to wear that badge, that green badge. 

It was an incredible experience. It was life changing. I showed myself that I'm able to do a really challenging part that's physically challenging and vocally challenging and mentally challenging. 

It's a real race every time you do it. And every time it ended, I was like, “Wow, we did it again.” They say that everything's easier after you do WICKED. And I did it so young in my life and career that it feels cool. Whatever comes next that's hard, I can say to myself, “Well, you did that; you're gonna be able to do this, whatever it is.’ 

I also read that in March 2024, you went on with like 24 hours notice or something because you were an “Emergency Elphaba”. How does one prepare themselves to do that? Because it had also been a bit since you had played the role at that time too, right?. 

It had been a year since I had left the show on Broadway, almost exactly. I left in March of 2023. And then came back in March of 2024, like late March. And I had gone on to do regional theater stuff. 

I actually that weekend had finished a run of SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE [as Dot]. And then Tuesday, my agent calls me and is like, “Hey, WICKED needs you to actually play Elphaba tomorrow.” 

This was late afternoon on Tuesday. So I grabbed my script and I ran to the theater.

And I watched the show that night —  I was mostly half doing it by myself and half watching it. And then the next morning, I was in! It was an amazing experience and test of [having to] just trust your body. I had done the show over 700 times throughout the years. 

I was like, “Whatever happens happens, you're kind of saving the day, you're stepping in.”

And I had never done it with any of the other like nine principal actors on that stage. I went and quickly introduced myself before I was on stage with people. 

You have to trust and listen. It's a really good test of listening and being in the moment. And I would say that those two shows were two of my favorite shows that I've ever, ever done.

On that note, what techniques do you use to memorize your lyrics and your lines? Because clearly, some of those Elphaba lines must have lived very deeply within you. 

I think it changes for me, depending on what it is. It's definitely about knowing what the scene is about, and knowing where it's going, knowing what my purpose in the scene is and what my objective is. And so that helps me know what's coming next. 

But also, it's really listening; there's always a clue in the line before like what the next line is. So you’ve got to be a really good listener. That’s kind of what it is for me, but really repetition is major. 

What do you hope that audiences take away from PARADE? 

I hope they come away moved. I think it's kind of impossible not to be moved by it. A little more thoughtful. I hope people just really think about the show, and also [consider] who they are in their own communities. Are they a bystander? Are they a perpetrator? 

I want people to come away from this [thinking] this incident that happened back in 1913 did not happen in a vacuum. That's evident in our incredible staging where [our director] Michael Arden has the cast on stage for most of the time. And that's not without incredible specificity and purpose and intention. I think that it's to show that these things don't happen in a vacuum. And there's a whole community that is present when things happen like this. 

I think our show does a really good job of not hitting the audience in the face with anything. And so it really forces the audience to think and holds a mirror up to them and their lives. 

I also hope that they really enjoy this unbelievable score. We have an incredible company of singers. I hope the question of, “Why would this ever be turned into a musical?” is answered when they come and see. 

See Talia Suskauer as Lucille Frank in the PARADE national tour during the Broadway In Chicago limited engagement at the CIBC Theatre August 5 - 17, 2025. 

Photo Credit: Joan Marcus