In honor of the 18th anniversary of Parade’s December 17 opening night on Broadway at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater, Tony Award-winning songwriter Jason Robert Brown has released a rare private demo of the opening number, “The Old Red Hills of Home.”
The demo was recorded in New York City a month after the musical’s first reading of the show at the Plays & Players Theatre in Philadelphia in 1996. Listen to the song below.
Brown posted on his website, “You’ll hear some interesting things here—my improvisations for the opening montage and the transition between 1863 and 1913; a verse for the Old Soldier that was subsequently cut; our original drummer, Tom ‘Partucci’ Partington; and, on backup vocals, the wonderful composer Jenny Giering, actress and recording artist Anastasia Barzee (both of whom had done the Philadelphia reading), and the inspirational founder of the Broadway Inspirational Voices, Michael McElroy. Twenty years ago, our credits looked a little different!”
Parade began previews on Broadway November 12, 1998. The show went on to win the 1999 Tony Awards for Best Original Score (Brown) and Best Book of a Musical (Alfred Uhry).
