Ben Platt’s long-awaited return to Broadway began this week when moviegoers were attacked by members of a far-right neo-Nazi hate group.
A video posted on Twitter by The Forward reporter Jake Wasserman shows a man wearing a National Socialist movement mask handing out anti-Semitic fliers outside New York’s Bernard B. Jacobs Theater, where Platt began previews of the musical “Parade” on Tuesday “.
“You pay $300 to worship a pedophile,” the unidentified man says in the video. In the background, another person shouts: “Romanticizing pedophiles, wow, Leo Frank.”
According to the poster, the man was joined by a small but vociferous group of demonstrators carrying handwritten signs with hateful anti-Semitic rhetoric.
Written by Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown, “Parade” is based on the life of Leo Frank (played by Platt), a Jewish man who in 1913 was wrongly convicted of the rape and murder of a factory worker, Maria. 13 years. Fagan. . Two years into his life sentence, Frank was kidnapped from a Georgia prison and hanged by a lynch mob. He was posthumously pardoned in 1986.
Platt, who rose to fame in 2016 for his Tony-winning performance in “Dear Evan Hansen,” addressed the protest in a short video posted to his Instagram page.
Bruce Glikas via Getty Images
“For those who don’t know, there were some neo-Nazi protesters from a really disgusting group outside the theater who were harassing some of our patrons on the road and saying anti-Semitic things about Leo Frank, who is the subject of the show,” she said in the clip. “It was definitely very bad and scary, but a wonderful reminder of why we are telling this particular story and how special and powerful art and especially theater can be. And it made me feel very grateful to be the one to tell this special story and carry on this Leo legacy.”
After assuring fans who came to see “Parade” that they would be “super safe and secure,” the actor went on to remark, “Now is really the time for this particular comedy.”
On Wednesday, the show’s production team echoed Platt’s sentiments in a statement condemning the “cowardice on display” outside the theater the night before.
“Parade” opened on Broadway in 1998, winning two Tony Awards. The current production opened to rave reviews at New York City Center last November before its Broadway transfer was confirmed in January.
According to Deadline, ticketing site Telecharge briefly crashed due to high demand for tickets. The musical will officially open on March 16.
