PARADE Diverges

In the 1990s, a sudden outpouring of new musical
talent flooded New York. Dubbed at the time as
creating New Theater Music, these challenging
composers were drawn to provocative and less
outwardly joyful material and possessed affinities
for atonal chords and complex harmonies, placing them
more in the company of Sondheim than of Schwartz.
When PARADE premiered on Broadway in 1998, its
composer-lyricist, Jason Robert Brown, was listed
among this group of impressive up-and-comers.
PARADE, a musicalization of the notorious case
of Leo Frank, a Jew tragically accused of the
murder of a young girl in the turn-of-the
twentieth-century American South, is an amalgamation
of traditional and newer techniques and topics ripe
for historical and artistic analysis. Closely
examining the strikingly different Broadway and
London premieres, this book demonstrates how the
fascinatingly complex musical engages and distances
audiences, how critical receptions alter over years
and miles, and how directorial vision and critical
reviews affect the continuing trajectory of the
American musical.

Autorentext
Julie L. Haverkate received her MA in Theatre Studies from The Florida State University and her BA in English from The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She is currently the Literary Director for Electric Pear Productions in New York City, where she continues to support the development and production of new musical works.

Klappentext
In the 1990s, a sudden outpouring of new musical talent flooded New York. Dubbed at the time as creating New Theater Music, these challenging composers were drawn to provocative and less outwardly joyful material and possessed affinities for atonal chords and complex harmonies, placing them more in the company of Sondheim than of Schwartz. When PARADE premiered on Broadway in 1998, its composer-lyricist, Jason Robert Brown, was listed among this group of impressive up-and-comers. PARADE, a musicalization of the notorious case of Leo Frank, a Jew tragically accused of the murder of a young girl in the turn-of-the twentieth-century American South, is an amalgamation of traditional and newer techniques and topics ripe for historical and artistic analysis. Closely examining the strikingly different Broadway and London premieres, this book demonstrates how the fascinatingly complex musical engages and distances audiences, how critical receptions alter over years and miles, and how directorial vision and critical reviews affect the continuing trajectory of the American musical.