Michael Arden Wins Best Direction of a Musical, Drawing Cheers for Calling Out Homophobic Slur
nytimes.comMichael Arden, a three-time Tony nominee, won his first Tony Award for his direction of the Broadway revival of “Parade,” the 1998 musical about the lynching of Leo Frank by an antisemitic mob.
Arden, who had previously been nominated for revivals of “Once on This Island” and “Spring Awakening,” won acclaim for what Jesse Green, the chief theater critic for The New York Times, praised as a timely and gorgeously sung revival.
With Ben Platt and Micaela Diamond cast as Leo and Lucille Frank, Arden tilted a musical about a horrific miscarriage of justice to more strongly emphasize the love story playing out between husband and wife. “‘Parade’ tells the story of a life that was cut short at the hands of the belief that one group of people is more or less valuable than another and that they might be more deserving of justice,” he said in accepting his award. “This is a belief that is the core of antisemitism, of white supremacy, of homophobia, of transphobia and intolerance of any kind.
We must come together. We must battle this. It is so, so important, or else we are doomed to repeat the horrors of our history.” Arden went on to recall how he had been called a homophobic slur — “the F-word,” he said — many times as a child.
