(WEST ORANGE, NJ) -- The American Theater Group (ATG), a professional regional theater company celebrating its 11th season, has announced it will present Parade, the Tony Award-winning musical at the Maurice Levin Theater at the JCC MetroWest in West Orange, NJ from March 9-11. As previously announced, the show will begin its run March 2-5 at the Sieminski Theater in Basking Ridge.
The musical by acclaimed playwright Alfred Uhry (Driving Miss Daisy) and score by Jason Robert Brown (Bridges of Madison County), received the 1999 Tony Awards for “Best Score” and “Best Book of a Musical,” and tells the heart-wrenching, true story of Leo Frank, a Brooklyn-raised Jewish man living in Atlanta who was wrongfully convicted of the murder of a 13-year-old employee. Amid religious intolerance, political injustice and racial tension, the stirring musical explores the endurance of love and hope against all odds. It was also named “Best Musical” by the 1999 Drama Desk Awards.
“We are thrilled to be able to expand our patron base by presenting this brilliant musical in an additional location,” noted ATG Producing Artistic Director James Vagias. “ATG had its roots in Essex County for a number of seasons and we are happy to return and provide our loyal, long-time patrons the opportunity to experience this production closer to home. We are confident that performing in this second venue will help ensure a broader audience for what promises to be amazing theater.”
Broadway veteran Hunter Foster will direct the production, with musical direction by Keith Levenson. Foster, an actor, writer and director, has directed Off-Broadway and at regional theaters across the US, including the Bucks County Playhouse, Theatre Aspen, Cape Playhouse and Redhouse Art Center. As an actor, he has performed on Broadway in shows such as Little Shop of Horrors (Tony Nomination), Urinetown, The Producers, The Bridges of Madison County, Hands on a Hardbody, Million Dollar Quartet, Footloose and Les Miserables. Levenson has conducted and created arrangements for major rock groups and Broadway musicals and conducted ATG’s enormously successful 2019 production of The Bridges of Madison County.
The Maurice Levin Theater at the JCC MetroWest is located at 760 Northfield Ave in West Orange, NJ. Performances will run Thursday through Saturday, March 9-11, at 7:00pm with an additional 1pm matinee on Saturday the 11th. Tickets are available at www.americantheatergroup.org. Additional information about casting will be announced shortly. Parade is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. www.mtishows.com.
ATG will continue its season in May at both venues with a production of The Right to be Forgotten by Sharyn Rothstein (By the Water, USA Network’s "Suits"), a powerful look at today’s social media landscape. The drama explores how a young man’s mistake at 17 haunts him online a decade later. Desperate for a normal life, he goes to extraordinary lengths to erase his indiscretion. Rothstein’s A Good Farmer was presented by ATG in 2018 to wide acclaim.
American Theater Group (ATG), founded in 2012, produces new and classic works primarily by American playwrights with an emphasis on the development of new works and the rediscovery of undeservedly neglected older ones. It also provides quality arts-in-education initiatives, including its annual DramaFest for students and its PlayLab program for BIPOC and queer playwrights. ATG programming is made possible in part by an American Rescue Plan Act grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support general operating expenses in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Made possible by the Somerset County Cultural & Heritage Commission, a partner of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
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