Gary Griffin Set to Direct Manhattan Concert Productions' PARADE Concert

The TONY Award-winning score from Parade will be brought to life for one night only at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center on February 16, 2015. Recent TONY-winner, and original composer, Jason Robert Brown will be at the helm to direct a star-studded cast and full chorus as Music Director, joined by Olivier Award-nominee Gary Griffin as Director.

Following the phenomenal success of Titanic earlier this year, and Ragtime in 2013, Manhattan Concert Productions will now bring the Drama Desk and TONY Award-winning score of Parade back to Lincoln Center where it all began in 1998. This concert performance of Parade will feature over 200 auditioned singers from the across the US, a full professional Broadway cast, and the enlarged forces of the New York City Chamber Orchestra. Full cast to be announced soon.

GARY GRIFFIN in his tenure at Chicago Shakespeare Theater as Director/Associate Artistic Director has directed A Midsummer Night's Dream, Follies, As You Like It, Private Lives, Amadeus, Passion, A Flea in Her Ear, A Little Night Music, Sunday in the Park with George (Upstairs Theater), Pacific Overtures, The Herbal Bed, Short Shakespeare! A Midsummer Night's Dream and Short Shakespeare! Romeo and Juliet. Broadway directing credits include The Color Purple and The Apple Tree. Off Broadway credits include: The Sound of Music (Carnegie Hall); Lost in the Stars, The Apple Tree, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Pardon My English, The New Moon(Encores!); and Beautiful Thing (Cherry Lane Theatre). Tour credits include the national tour of The Color Purple. London credits include Pacific Overtures at the Donmar Warehouse (Olivier Award for Outstanding Musical Production and Olivier nomination for Best Director). Regional credits include work with: The Old Globe, McCarter Theatre, Alliance Theatre, Signature Theatre and Hartford Stage. His Chicago credits with Court Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Apple Tree Theatre, Writers' Theatre, Marriott Theatre, Drury Lane Oakbrook, Famous Door Theatre and Pegasus Players have earned him eight Joseph Jefferson Awards for directing. Griffin's directing credits include: West Side Story, Evita, Camelot and 42nd Street (Stratford Shakespeare Festival); and The Merry Widow, Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado(Lyric Opera of Chicago), and Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!

With a skillful score by Jason Robert Brown and a book by the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Alfred Uhry, Parade tells a controversial story of the 1913 trial of Jewish factory manager Leo Frank, who was accused and convicted of raping and murdering a thirteen-year-old employee, Mary Phagan in Atlanta, Georgia. This was Brown's very first Broadway production, and his score "draws on a variety of influences, from pop-rock to folk to rhythm and blues and gospel" - Variety.

Manhattan Concert Productions presents a concert performance of Parade on February 16, 2015 at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center.

Tickets start at $50 and go on sale Tuesday, September 2, 2014.

Presale begins on August 25, 2014.

Visit www.facebook.com/ManhattanConcertProductions for presale code on August 25. Presale code offers an exclusive 20% off the best seats in the house.

Tickets will be available from www.mcp.us, www.lincolncenter.org

CenterCharge (212) 721-6500, or in person at Avery Fisher Hall box office, 10

Lincoln Center Plaza (Columbus Avenue at 65th Street).

Moving into its 16th season, Manhattan Concert Productions is an esteemed production company dedicated to excellence in music making, hospitality and travel details. Its focus is placed on the selection and preparation of visiting musicians, guest conductors, professional bands and orchestras, and soloists. The guest musicians of theParade chorus will spend four days in New York City rehearsing and working side-by-side with the professional principal cast, as part of Manhattan Concert Productions' continued work bringing professionals and students together. Visit www.mcp.us to learn more.

Photo Credit: Kevin Thomas Garcia