“The trauma involved in this one has a lot more to do with me,” Ben Platt says of “Parade,” his first Broadway show since winning a Tony for “Dear Evan Hansen.”
“Parade” is Platt’s first Broadway show since he won a Tony as the star of “Dear Evan Hansen.” Playing Frank is less taxing physically but more fraught personally. “The trauma involved in this one has a lot more to do with me,” he said. Frank was twenty-nine when he was charged with murder. Platt is twenty-nine. As an adult, Frank had moved to Atlanta, an odd place for a prewar Jew. “My mom’s side ended up in Kansas,” Platt said. “They were one of very few Jewish families.
The Platts eventually made their way to Los Angeles. Ben went to Harvard-Westlake for school, Ojai for Jewish sleepaway camp. “I had a musical-theatre-themed bar mitzvah,” he said. “My entrance to the party was ‘Walk Like a Man’ by the Four Seasons. I sang with my two brothers and my dad. We wore matching blazers, and we had some choreo that my sister did.” His father, Marc Platt, a movie, TV, and theatre producer , was in charge of the photo montage. “He takes it very seriously.
On he strolled, in the sidewalk slow lane. An elderly woman with a cane trundled past. At last, he arrived at a brownstone with chalk hearts scrawled up the stoop. Platt recognized it from photographs. “It looks the same,” he said. “The door is the same, these railings are the same.” Another link: “There’s this girl in our ensemble who’s amazing—her name is Florrie Bagel. Jewish, as you can imagine. She’s really into the, like, spiritual connection of everything.
Platt also planned to get in touch. He regretted not doing so sooner. “I need to find somewhere to pee,” he said. “I can also do it in an alley!” He looked at his water bottle, now down somewhere near “1” and added, “The worst part is, I sit onstage during intermission. More often than not, I have to pee. I’m trying to get more Zen about my bladder.” ♦New Yorker Favorites
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
‘Parade’ Review: Ben Platt Stuns in a Powerful Broadway Production of an Essential American MusicalTraveling from the relative calm of the Clinton era to more perilous, contemporary times of mobs, mendacity and political mayhem, the much-admired but short-lived musical “Parade” has n…
Read more »
‘Parade’ Broadway Review: Ben Platt & Micaela Diamond Lead Exceptional March Through HistoryNeo-nazis tend to be a noisy bunch, and it takes an extraordinary and confident work of art to drown out their loud, ugly racket. Parade, opening tonight on Broadway at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatr…
Read more »
'Parade' revival celebrates opening night on BroadwayThe musical, based on a true story, stars Tony Award winner Ben Platt and Micaela Diamond.
Read more »
History Repeats Itself in the Broadway Revival of “Parade”Ben Platt stars as the doomed Leo Frank in Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown’s musical “Parade,” in a new production at the Bernard B. Jacobs.
Read more »
Parade Marches Back In, Intent on Its Own RelevanceBen Platt and Micaela Diamond star in the revival of this musical about antisemitism in the Deep South.
Read more »