Jason Robert Brown, Stephanie Block and More Set for PARADE Event at Museum of Jewish Heritage

The creative team behind the Tony Award-winning PARADE, the much adored musical based on the trial of Leo Frank, discusses how history can inspire art. Accompanied by an ensemble of six performers and nine musicians, "An Evening on PARADE" will be on Monday, March 7, 7 P.M., at the Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust.

In 1915, Leo Frank became the only Jew ever lynched in America. His trial, murder, and the aftermath are the subject of a powerful special exhibition Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited, which opens February 26 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. PARADE, revered by musical theater enthusiasts, is the 1999 Tony Award Winner for Best Book of a Musical and Best Score.

This special program features PARADE's composer, lyricist, and playwright Jason Robert Brown, playwright Alfred Uhry, and historian Steve Oney; moderated by Julie Burstein (Spark: How Creativity Works). Performers are Sebastian Arcelus as Leo Frank and Stephanie Block as Lucille Frank, joined by Jesse Warren-Nager, Caitlin Houlihan, Caitlin Kinnunen, and Allie Trimm.

Tickets are $20, $15 MJH Members/Students with valid ID and include same-day admission to the exhibition Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited. The Museum of Jewish Heritage is located at 36 Battery Place in Lower Manhattan. To purchase tickets, visit www.mjhnyc.org or call 646.437.4202.

About the Special Exhibition Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited:This special exhibition explores the momentous and tragic events surrounding the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan in Georgia in 1913 and the lynching of Leo Frank, the Jewish factory superintendent accused of her murder. The case has sparked more than a century of debate. Seeking Justice brings new insights to the events that led up to these murders, as well as the granting of a posthumous pardon for Leo Frank in 1986.

Set against the backdrop of the American South, Seeking Justice examines racial, religious, regional, and class prejudices in the early 20th century. The case, which shook the nation, galvanized the Anti-Defamation League and revived the Ku Klux Klan. The exhibition represents more than 20 years of research and collecting of archival materials.

Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited was created by The William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum in Atlanta. The exhibition is on view at the Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York City from February 26 to August 28, 2016. www.mjhnyc.org/leofrank.

About the Speakers and Performers for "An Evening on PARADE":

JASON ROBERT BROWN is the ultimate multi-hyphenate - a three-time Tony Award-winning composer, lyricist, conductor, arranger, orchestrator, director and performer - best known for his dazzling scores to several of the most renowned musicals of his generation, including the award-winning The Bridges of Madison County, the influential The Last Five Years, his debut song cycle Songs for a New World, and the seminal PARADE, for which he won the 1999 Tony Award for Best Score. Jason Robert Brown has been hailed as "one of Broadway's smartest and most sophisticated songwriters since Stephen Sondheim" (Philadelphia Inquirer), and his "extraordinary, jubilant theater music" (Chicago Tribune) has been heard all over the world, whether in one of the hundreds of productions of his musicals every year or in his own incendiary live performances. The New York Times refers to Jason as "a leading member of a new generation of composers who embody high hopes for the American musical."

PARADE, Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown's powerful musical about the Leo Frank case, opened at Lincoln Center Theater in December 1998, winning Tony Awards for its book and its score, and premiered in London at the Donmar Warehouse in 2007 in a landmark production directed by Rob Ashford which subsequently played the Mark Taper Forum in 2009. In 2015, Brown led a full orchestra and 200-voice choir in a sold-out concert version of the show at Avery Fisher Hall.

ALFRED UHRY is the only American playwright to have won a Pulitzer Prize (Driving Miss Daisy 1988), an Academy Award (Driving Miss Daisy, 1990) and two Tony Awards (The Last Night Of Ballyhoo, 1997 and PARADE 1999). He co-created Angel Reapers with Martha Clarke, now playing at the Signature Theatre, and has written the book for My Paris, the Toulouse-Lautrec musical, which will open at the Long Wharf Theatre in May. He was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 2015.

STEVE ONEY is the author of And the Dead Shall Rise: the Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank. The book won the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award for best work on the nation's legal system and the National Jewish Book Award for history. Early in his career Oney was a staff writer at The Atlanta Journal & Constitution Magazine. He has also worked as a senior writer at Premiere magazine and as a senior editor at Los Angeles magazine, and he has contributed to many other publications, among them Esquire, Time, Playboy, and The Wall Street Journal. His stories have been anthologized in The Best American Sports Writing, 2006 and The Best American Magazine Writing, 2008. Oney was educated at the University of Georgia and at Harvard, where he was a Nieman Fellow. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, designer Madeline Stuart. He is at work on a book about National Public Radio for Simon & Schuster.

JULIE BURSTEIN is a Peabody Award-winning radio producer, TED speaker, and best-selling author of the first Studio 360 book, Spark: How Creativity Works. She has spent her working life in conversation with highly creative artists, scientists and business professionals - interviewing, probing, guiding, and creating live events and public radio programs about them and their work. Julie is the host of Spark Talks at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the creator and founding executive producer of public radio's Studio 360, the producer of Totally Cerebral with Dr. Wendy Suzuki, and the creative consultant for TEDxMet at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. She speaks frequently about creativity at universities, corporations, and international conferences.

SEBASTIAN ARCELUS is currently appearing as Senior Policy Advisor "Jay Whitman" on the CBS drama "Madam Secretary." He is also known for portraying crusading journalist, "Lucas Goodwin," on the Emmy-Award-winning Netflix series "House of Cards," starring Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright. On Broadway, he has starred in John Grisham's A Time to Kill, Elf, Jersey Boys, Wicked, Rent, and Good Vibrations. Some off-Broadway, regional, and international credits include Happiness (Lincoln Center Theater), The Blue Flower (Second Stage), Where's Charley? (Encores!), Wicked (First National), The Full Monty (NSMT), West Side Story (Latin America), Miss Julie, Floyd Collins, and the world premieres of A Time To Kill (Arena Stage) and William Finn's Songs of Innocence and Experience (Williamstown). Other Film/TV credits include M. Night Shyamalan's upcoming Split, Ted 2, The Best of Me, The Last Day of August, "The Leftovers" (HBO), and "Person of Interest" (CBS). His voice can also be heard on numerous television commercials and animated programs.

STEPHANIE BLOCK has established herself as one of the most relevant and versatile voices in contemporary musical theatre. She received both the 2013 TONY Award and Drama Desk nomination for Best Leading Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Alice Nutting/Edwin Drood in The Roundabout Theatre's production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Other Broadway credits include Reno Sweeney in the 2011 TONY Award winning revival of Anything Goes, 9 To 5:The Musical for which she earned a Drama Desk nomination for Best Actress in a Musical, Grace O'Malley in The Pirate Queen and Liza Minnelli In The Boy From Oz (opposite Hugh Jackman). Ms. Block is best known for her portrayal as Elphaba in the Broadway company of Wicked as well as originating the role in the First National Tour for which she won numerous awards including the prestigious Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical. Ms. Block has been invited to sing with some of the most prestigious symphony orchestras including the NY Pops at Carnegie Hall, Boston Pops, National Symphony Orchestra (under the baton of Marvin Hamlisch), Dallas Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Utah Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Charlotte Symphony and the Cleveland Pops among many others. Her solo concert has been critically acclaimed and continues to sell out throughout the US and in London.

About the Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust: The Museum's exhibitions educate people of all ages and backgrounds about the rich tapestry of Jewish life over the past century-before, during, and after the Holocaust. The special exhibition Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals 1933-1945 is on view through February 29, 2016. Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited opens on February 26, 2016 and will be on view through August 28, 2016. The Museum is also home to the award-winning Keeping History Center, an interactive visitor experience, and Andy Goldsworthy's memorial Garden of Stones. The Museum offers visitors a vibrant public program schedule in its Edmond J. Safra Hall and receives general operating support from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts.