Micaela Diamond and Ben Platt to Star in PARADE at New York City Center, Directed by Michael Arden

New York City Center today announced the Annual Gala Presentation for the 2022 - 2023 season will be a production of Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry's 1998 Tony Award-winning musical Parade. Opening with a Gala benefit performance on Tuesday, November 1, the production will run through November 6, 2022. Funds raised by all seven performances will allow City Center to continue to provide access to the performing arts by subsidizing education programs and affordable tickets throughout the year.

Jason Robert Brown (music and lyrics) and Alfred Uhry (book) both won Tony Awards for their juxtaposition of brutal historical detail with hauntingly pastoral lyricism in this musical interpretation of the 1913 trial of Jewish factory manager Leo Frank in Marietta, Georgia. The City Center Annual Gala Presentation will star Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award winner Ben Platt (Dear Evan Hanson) as Frank and Micaela Diamond (The Cher Show) as his wife Lucille. Tony-nominated director Michael Arden (Once on This Island, Deaf West's Spring Awakening) leads the production, embracing the true crime courtroom drama of the piece by incorporating trial photography and projections to starkly contrast the sweeping beauty of Brown's Tony-winning score.

Full programming for New York City Center's 2022 - 2023 season will be announced in June.

How to Get Tickets

Members get exclusive access to tickets beginning May 19 before the general public on June 14. Tickets starting at $35 can be purchased online at NYCityCenter.org, by calling 212.581.1212, or in person at the City Center Box Office. New York City Center is located at 131 W 55th St between Sixth and Seventh avenues.

Gala benefit packages for Tuesday, November 1, including a festive post-performance dinner at the Ziegfeld Ballroom, start at $2,500. For additional details, contact SpecialEvents@NYCityCenter.org or call 212.763.1205.

Bios

Micaela Diamond (Lucille Frank) made her Broadway debut as Babe, the youngest Cher, in The Cher Show-a role she auditioned for just weeks after graduating high school. She recently appeared in Williamstown Theatre Festival's production of Row and Ethan Coen's A Play Is A Poem in Los Angeles. She made her television debut in NBC's Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert, appearing in the ensemble and understudying Sara Bareilles. Additional television and film credits include The Gilded Age and tick, tick...Boom! Diamond grew up in New York City and is a graduate of LaGuardia Arts High School in New York.

Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award winner Ben Platt (Leo Frank) will soon be seen in the Amazon film The People We Hate at The Wedding and has announced he will embark a multi-city tour, Reverie, this fall. Singer-songwriter Platt released two critically acclaimed albums with Atlantic Records: Sing to Me Instead, recorded as part of his sold-out tour and released as the Netflix special Ben Platt: Live from Radio City Music Hall; and his recent sophomore album Reverie. Platt recently started in Universal's film adaption of Dear Evan Hansen and will be starring with Beanie Feldstein in Merrily We Roll Along, directed by Richard Linklater. Platt starred in the smash hits Pitch Perfect and Pitch Perfect 2. He also appeared in Ricki and The Flash alongside Meryl Streep and Run this Town. On the small screen, Platt appeared in BJ Novak's The Premise (FX), and guest starred in NBC's Will & Grace reboot. Platt starred and served as executive producer of Ryan Murphy's Netflix series The Politician for two seasons.

Michael Arden (director) is a two-time Tony-nominated director for his revivals of Spring Awakening and Once on This Island (which won the 2018 Tony for Best Revival). He won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for his production of Spring Awakening. Arden made his Broadway debut as an actor in Deaf West Theater and Roundabout Theatre Company's production of Big River. Other directing credits include Alien/Nation (Williamstown Theatre Festival), The Conners (ABC), A Christmas Carol at the Geffen, Annie at The Hollywood Bowl, My Fair Lady at Bay Street Theater, and The Pride and Merrily We Roll Along at the Wallis Annenberg Center in Los Angeles where he is currently the Artist in Residence. Arden is an alum of The Interlochen Arts Academy and The Juilliard School. In addition to his work as a director, Arden is the founder and Artistic Director of The Forest of Arden, a diverse Company of multi-disciplinary artists, designers, musicians, writers, stage managers, and filmmakers who strive to devise immersive, imaginative, and provocative theatrical experiences with an emphasis on site-specific work and innovating technologies while serving communities and the people in them.

NEW YORK CITY CENTER (Arlene Shuler, President & CEO) has played a defining role in the cultural life of the city since 1943. Manhattan's first performing arts center, City Center was founded by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia with the mission of making the best in music, theater, and dance accessible to all audiences. This commitment continues today through celebrated dance and musical theater series like the Fall for Dance Festival and the Tony-honored Encores! series and a continued dedication to a culture built on the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The distinctive neo-Moorish theater welcomes over 300,000 annual visitors to experience internationally acclaimed artists on the same stage where legends like George Balanchine, Leonard Bernstein, Barbara Cook, José Ferrer, Martha Graham, and Paul Robeson made their mark. Home to a roster of renowned national and international companies including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, City Center's Principal Dance Company, and Manhattan Theatre Club, City Center's dynamic programming, art exhibitions, studio events, and master classes, are complemented by education and community engagement programs that bring the performing arts to over 11,000 New York City students, teachers, and families each year. NYCityCenter.org