A York theatre group are set to stage an award-winning and emotionally devastating production this spring.
Following a successful 2025 with shows such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Black Sheep Theatre Productions are returning to the Joseph Rowntree Theatre with an adaptation of Jason Robert Brown’s Tony Award winning musical Parade from Wednesday 1 to Saturday 4 April 2026.
Parade follows the real-life tragedy of Jewish New Yorker Leo Frank some years after moving to Atlanta, Georgia, with his wife Lucille Frank, to become head of a pencil factory. However, in 1913, Leo’s life is turned upside down as a young girl, Mary Phagan, is discovered dead in the basement of the factory, and Leo is the main suspect.
The citizens of Atlanta then begin to turn on Leo, creating lies and false testimonies, feeding them all to the slimy prosecution lawyer Hugh Dorsey and the article-hungry reporter Britt Craig who twist the narrative painting Leo as this inhuman monster, at the shock of not only Leo himself but his wife Lucille.
This will be Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ third foray into the music of Jason Robert Brown, with their previous ventures of The Last Five Years and Songs for a New World – the latter receiving Best Show in the York Community Theatre Awards.
Parade will star Dan Poppitt as Leo Frank, Molly Whitehouse as Lucille Frank, Eloise Shneck as Mary Phagan, Jack Hooper as Hugh Dorsey and Richard Bayton as Britt Craig.
The cast is completed with Reggie Challenger, Oskar Nuttall, Mark Simmonds, Charlie Clarke, Joyce Duncan, Georgina Burt, David Copley-Martin, Jack James Fry, Sophia Razak, and Sarah Rudd.
