Los Angeles Times
- Highly Recommended
"...Director Michael Arden has answered the call in his Tony-winning revival, which has arrived at the Ahmanson Theatre in sharp form. The production, which launched at New York City Center before transferring to Broadway, proved that a succes d'estime could also be an emotionally stirring hit."
Stage and Cinema
- Highly Recommended
"...Michael Arden is a Renaissance artist. He approaches his work with a humanist curiosity, an intricate yet organic perfectionism, and a keen eye for composition, movement, and light. He's a two-time Tony Award-winning director, the first of which was for his 2023 Broadway revival of Parade. This production is now on tour and has landed at the Ahmanson in Los Angeles, with several of the original cast members."
LA Splash
- Highly Recommended
"...But the true story of Leo Frank's arrest, conviction, and death sentence for murder - and subsequent mob lynching - still held a fascination which led to its remake in 1998 from the book by Alfred Uhry, who had a keen personal connection: his great-uncle owned the pencil factory run by Leo Frank where the murder occurred. With music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, the new version of PARADE premiered on Broadway in December 1998 and won two Tony awards for best book and best original score. The show closed in 1999 and gathered dust until 2023, when the production was revived on Broadway and won the Tony award for best revival of a musical. In 2025, the Ahmanson Theatre is proud to present PARADE."
Stage Scene LA
- Highly Recommended
"...Michael Arden’s brilliant Tony-winning direction revitalizes Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry’s Parade, topping the reasons why Broadway’s 2013 Tony winner for Best Revival of a Musical is an absolute must-see at the Ahmanson."
Angeles Stage
- Highly Recommended
"...However, perhaps the most remarkable achievement of the musical's creators, writer Alfred Uhry and composer/lyricist Jason Robert Brown, is their ability to tell this ugly and unfortunately pertinent tale, while simultaneously depicting a much more inspiring and parallel narrative - about how Leo's ordeal strengthened the bond between Frank and his wife Lucille, a native daughter of Atlanta Jewry."
Ticket Holders LA
- Highly Recommended
"...Casting director Craig Burns and the Telsey Office deserve exorbitant praise for assembling this incredible, uniformly inspirational troupe of actors with voices beyond the best-but of course, the catalyst for what makes them so able to be incandescent is the gorgeous, heroic score by Jason Robert Brown, heir to the mantle as one of the greatest musical theatre composers of all time, each magical link of its chain forged through the years by the likes of George Gershwin, Kurt Weill, and Brown's obvious mentor Stephen Sondheim."
Indulge Magazine
- Highly Recommended
"...History doesn't just repeat-it sings, bleeds, and indicts in Parade, the scorching revival of Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry's (Driving Miss Daisy) masterwork now playing at the Ahmanson Theatre. Under the blisteringly clear direction of Michael Arden, whose Tony-winning vision arrives in Los Angeles fully intact, this production doesn't just resurrect the true tragic story of Leo Frank-it galvanizes it into something unshakably current."
Larchmont Buzz
- Highly Recommended
"...Again, the above-mentioned performers are merely a small portion of this incredible cast. And if I have one major criticism about this show, it goes back to the music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown. With barely any song reprisals and densely packed, heavy narrated songs, this is not a show audiences will leave humming or singing. It might be argued that these are not required, but not having them is what prevents Parade from being a musical in the same caliber as Evita, Ragtime or Hamilton."
LA Theatre Bites
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Broadway-level vocals, lackluster staging, and a brilliant pivot script that bears repeating. Two out of three ain't so bad, actually, it's above average!"
Broadway World
- Somewhat Recommended
"...The story PARADE tells is a meaningful one that most do not know, but it would have much more impact if it had been streamlined."
