The Creators

 

It isn't often that a Broadway show is created by such a fine and such a disparate group of individuals. PARADE was directed by theatre veteran and legend Harold Prince, with a book by the famed playwright Alfred Uhry and a score by the young and talented Jason Robert Brown.  Together, these three men created a musical quite different from anything that had ever been seen on the Broadway stage.
 

JASON ROBERT BROWN (Music and Lyrics)
makes his Broadway debut as a composer with Parade.  Jason's first musical, Songs for a New World, directed by Daisy Prince, debuted Off-Broadway at the WPA Theatre in October 1995, and was subsequently recorded by RCA Victor.  For his work on that show and others in progress, Jason was given the 1996 Gilman/Gonzalez-Falla Musical Theatre Award.  Two of Jason's songs were indcluded on Audra McDonald's album, Way Back to Paradise.  As arranger:  William Finn's A New Brain (Lincoln Center Tehater); Dinah Was (Gramercy Theatre); Paul Robeson: All-American (Theatreworks USA); Liza Minnelli.  As orchestrator:  Andrew Lippa's john and jen (Lamb's Theatre); Yoko Ono's New York Rock (WPA); Love's Fire (The Acting Company); Sondheim:  A Celebration at Carnegie Hall.  As musical director:  Michael John LaChiusa's The Petrified Prince (Public); When Pigs Fly.  Jason thanks his extraordinary family for their love and support, and dedicates his work on Parade to Irving Brown and to the memory of Jack Hollday.
 

HAROLD PRINCE (Co-Conceiver/Director)
Since 1962, Mr. Prince has been directing such productions as Show Boat, Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Phantom of the Opera, Evita, Sweeney Todd, Candide, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, Follies, Company, Cabaret, and She Loves Me.  Among the plays Mr.Prince has directed are The Visit, The Great God Brown, and The End of the World.  He was represented Off-Broadway by his own play, Grandchild of Kings.  From 1954 to 1976 he produced Fiddler on the Roof, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Fiorello!, West Side Story, Damn Yankees and The Pajama Game. He has directed two films:  Something for Everyone and A Little Night Music.  His opera productions have been seen at the Chicago Lyric, The Metropolitan Oera, New York City Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Dallas Opera, Vienna Staatsoper and the Theatre Colon in Buenos Aires.  At this time he is represented by seven productions of The Phantom of the Opera throughout the world and a production of Show Boat.  Upcoming projects for Mr. Prince included the direction of Strindberg's Miss Julie, a new version by Frank McGuinness, which is scheduled to bow in London next season.  He serves as a Trustee for the New York Public Library and served on the National Council of the Arts of the NEA for six years.  He has recieved twenty Tony Awards.  He is 1994 Kennedy Center Honoree.
 

ALFRED UHRY (Book)
Broadway:  The Last Night of Ballyhoo (directed by Ron Lagomarsino), 1997 Tony Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Drama League Award, American Theatre Critics Association Award; The Robber Bridegroom (directed by Gerald Freedman), 1976 Tony nomination.  Off-Broadway:  Playwrights Horizons' production of Driving Miss Daisy (directed by Ron Lagomarsino), 1988 Pulitzer Prize, Outer Critics Circle Award.  Screenplays:  Mystic Pizza (directed by Bruce Beresford), 1989 Academy Award; Rich In Love (directed by Bruce Beresford), 1993.  Current film projects:  The Optimist's Daughter (Disney, Sally Field), Taft (Revelations, Morgan Freeman), Dodsworth (Warner Brothers), Cut Flowers (Miramax).  Board President, Young Playwrights Inc. (1990 - ); Council, Dramatists Guild (1988 - ); Patron, British Performing Arts Labs (1992 - ).
 
 
 
 

OTHER MEMBERS of THE CREATIVE and DESIGN TEAM of PARADE
 

DON SEBESKY  (Orchestrations)
Broadway:  The Life (Tony nomination), Goodbye Girl, Will Rogers' Follies, Cyrano.  Off-Broadway: Saturn Returns.  Film:  Rosary Murders, The People Next Door.  Television:  "Allegra's Window," "Dangerous Minds," "Guiding Light" (two Emmy nominations).  Twenty Grammy nominations (Barbra Streisand, George Benson, Tony Bennett, Vanessa Williams, John Pizzarelli), RCA Victor recording artist.  Current projects:  Barry Manilow (Sinatra tribute), Boston Pops (Gershwin album), BMG (Ellington tribute), Freddie Hubbard (CTI Records).  Currently performing in Bill Evans' Repertory Big Band.
 

PATRICIA BIRCH  (Choreography)
director and choreographer, has earned two Emmy Awards, four Tony nominations, Drama Desk, Billboard and MTV awards for her work in all media.  Broadway:  Candide; Rosa; Gilda Radner: Live from New York; Raggedy Ann; Zoot Suit; They're Playing Our Song; Music Is (Tony nomination); Pacific Overtures (Tony nomination); Over Here (Tony nomination); The Happy End; A Little Night Music; Grease (Tony nomination); The Me Nobody Knows and You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.  Off-Broadway, tours and opera:  Band in Berlin, The Snow Queen, I Sent a Letter to My Love, American Enterprise, What About Luv, Elvis, The Gershwin Gala, The Mass, A Walk on the Wild Side, Really Rosie, The Cradle Will Rock, Diamond Studs, The Mikado, Street Scene.  Film:  First Wives Club, Stella, Billy Bathgate, Sleeping with the Enemy, Working Girl, Awakenings, Big, Grease, Grease II, Sgt. Pepper, The Wild Party, Roseland.  Television:  "Natalie Cole's Christmas," "Unforgettable, with Natalie Cole" (Directors Guild nomination, Emmy), "Celebrating Gershwin" (Emmy), "Dance in America," "On the Town" (concert version), "Christmas with Flicka," "Saturday Night Live," "The Electric Company."  Videos:  Cyndi Lauper, Rolling Stones, Carly Simon, etc.  Performance:  Martha Graham Company, West Side Story, etc.
 

RICCARDO HERNANDEZ  (Scenic Design)
Broadway:  Noise/Funk (American Theatre Wing Award nomination), The Tempest (with Patrick Stewart), both directed by George C. Wolfe.  Other collaborations with Mr. Wolfe include the world premiere of Amistad at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Macbeth (with Alec Baldwin and Angela Bassett), Blade to the Heat (AUDELCO Award).  Off-Broadway:  NYSF/Public Theater, MTC, Playwrights Horizons, BAM, Vineyard Theatre.  Regional:  ART (Boston), Arena Stage (Washington), Center Stage (Baltimore), Dallas Theatre Center, Goodman Theatre (Chicago), La Jolla Playhouse, Mark Taper Forum (Los Angeles), Shakespeare Theatre (Washington), Yale Repertory Theatre.  National tour:  Noise/Funk (second year).  1992 graduate, Yale School of Drama.
 

JUDITH DOLAN (Costume Design)
Broadway:  Candide (Tony Award), Merrily We Roll Along, original production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  Off-Broadway:  The Petrified Prince (NYSF, Lucille Lortel Award, Drama Desk nomination), Grandchild of Kings (Irish Rep), The Cradle Will Rock (Acting Company).  Other theater:  Machinal (American Conservatory Theatre); Julius Caesar (Shakespeare Theatre); A New Way to Pay Old Debts (Acting Company); Macbeth, As You Like It (Alley); The Miser (ART); Edward III, Henry V (Theatre Clywd, Wales); A Doll's House, Desire Under the Elms (Abbey Theatre); Juno and the Paycock, She Stoops to Conquer (Irish National Theatre).  Film:  A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Rosary Murders, The Outsider.  Television:  "The Courtyard" (Showtime).
 

HOWELL BINKLEY  (Lighting Design)
Broadway:  Kiss of the Spider Woman, Grease, How to Succeed in Business, My Thing of Love, Sacrilege, Taking Sides, High Society.  Off-Broadway, regional theater, and tours: Never the Sinner, Whistle Down the Wind, Jekyll and Hyde, Alley Theatre, American Repertory Theatre, McCarter Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Shakespeare Theatre, NYSF, City Center Encores!, Cirque Ingeniux for Networks.  Dance:  American Ballet Theater, National Ballet of Canda, Paris Opera Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance, Parsons Dance Company (co-founder), Peter Pucci Plus, Joffrey Ballet (Billboards).  Opera:  Metropolitan Opera, Dallas Opera.  Awards:  1993 Tony nomination, Sir Laurence Olivier and Canadian Dora awards for Kiss of the Spider Woman.  1991, 1993, 1995, 1998 Helen Hayes Awards.
 

JONATHAN DEANS  (Sound Design)
has designed over 120 productions of musicals, plays, operas, Las Vegas spectaculars and many attractions at various theme parks, interactively-themed restaurants and system designs for new and renovated theaters.  Recent theatrical credits include Ragtime, King David, Fosse, EFX, Cirque du Soleil at the Bellagio Hotel, Ramdam in Orlando, and Mystere at Treasure Island Hotel.  For several years he taught M.F.A. students theatre sound design at UCLA and is currently a columnist for Surround Professional magazine.
 
 
 
 

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