Review Roundup: PARADE National Tour Starring Max Chernin & Talia Suskauer

The touring production of the recent Broadway revival of Parade is now on tour across the United States.

The company is led by Max Chernin (Broadway Revival of Parade) and Talia Suskauer  who will play Leo and Lucille Frank. The case also includes Griffin Binnicker, Evan Harrington, Ramone Nelson, Jack Roden, Andrew Samonsky, Chris Shyer, Michael Tacconi, Alison Ewing, Olivia Goosman, Jenny Hickman, Oluchi Nwaokorie, Robert Knight, Prentiss E. Mouton (Broadway Revival of Parade), Danielle Lee Greaves (Broadway Revival of Parade), Ben Cherington, Emily Rose DeMartino (Broadway Revival of Parade), Bailee Endebrock (Broadway Revival of Parade), Caroline Fairweather (Broadway Revival of Parade), Trevor James, Sophia Manicone (Broadway Revival of  Parade), Trista Moldovan, Ethan Riordan, Brian Vaughn and Jason Simon.  William Bishop, Jerquintez A. Gipson, Brianna Javis, Benjamin Magnuson, Jodi Snyder, Eden Witvoet and Jake Ziman will be the swings. 

Parade is directed by Tony Award winner Michael Arden, with book by two-time Tony Award winner, Pulitzer Prize winner, and Academy Award winner Alfred Uhry, music and lyrics by three-time Tony Award winner Jason Robert Brown, and co-conceived by 21-time Tony Award-winning legend Harold Prince.  

Katherine Kiessling, Times Union: The heart of the show is assigned to Leo and his wife Lucille, played by Max Chernin and Talia Suskauer. The pair is charged with embracing the Franks’ rough edges — his aloofness, her initial desires to cling to her privileged life and flee the hardships of her husband’s trial — and eliciting empathy. Chernin’s Leo is a heartbreaking, tightly coiled ball of anxiety, one that softens with the desperation of his final courtroom plea, "It's Hard to Speak My Heart.” Lucille glows with fiery determination for justice and fierce love, thanks to Suskauer expertly calibrated performance, and the pair's chemistry makes the Franks’ reignited tenderness in act two palpable.

Average Rating: 90.0%