REUTERS/Aude Guerrucci
Broadway star Ben Platt condemned “really disgusting” neo-Nazi protesters “spreading evil” who heckled theatergoers on Tuesday evening in line to see the first preview performance of the musical, Parade.
The show, a Broadway transfer from the Encores! concert series, is based on the true story of a Jewish factory superintendent, Leo Frank, who was falsely convicted of killing 13-year-old employee Mary Phagan in 1913, and who was kidnapped from prison and lynched two years later. Platt, who won Tony, Emmy, and Grammy awards for playing the title role in Dear Evan Hansen, plays Frank in Parade.
In one video, posted by Forward journalist Jacob Wasserman, a masked activist from the National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi hate group, tried to leaflet theater-goers outside the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre so they could “find out the truth” about the ADL (Anti-Defamation League), as well as Parade. “You’re paying 300 bucks to go fucking worship a pedophile, you might as well know what you’re talking about,” the masked person said.