Through February 23
What’s on now at Playhouse Square’s Connor Palace theater? The national tour of Parade.
This Broadway Series offering won the 2023 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical (Harold Prince’s 1998 Award-winning creation). It is directed by Michael Arden, with book by Alfred Uhry and music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown. Although described as a “musical” (it does have great voices for the over two dozen musical numbers listed in the program), what works best (and stays longest in memory) are the tragic events that inspired Parade.
The story takes place in 1913 Georgia. Pencil factory manager Leo Frank (Max Chernin), a Jewish-American newcomer, was convicted of murdering Mary Phagan (Emily Rose DeMartino), a 13-year-old factory worker. What follows serves as a somber indictment of prejudice, politics and sensationalist journalism that proved fatal to Leo Frank (who was kidnapped from jail and lynched).
Chernin, who also played Leo Frank in the Broadway revival, masterfully reveals the intense focus of a manager who obsessively escapes into his work. Why? Why does he neglect his charming and beautiful wife Lucille? Suspicions are aroused about Frank, raised in New York City rather than Atlanta like his wife. He didn’t “fit in.”
As Lucille, Talia Suskauer shows how confusion, resentment and vulnerability can morph into action (politically) and love (personally). Chermin and Suskauer’s hopeful duet “This Is Not Over Yet” gives a bright respite from the unrelenting death machine created by politics, sensationalist journalism and community prejudice.
The events portrayed make one grateful for DNA-based police investigations today (but that’s not to say there’s any guarantee DNA makes today perfect). So this is not a happy, escapist musical. It might (and perhaps should) provoke investigation into the specific facts of the case (abundantly provided online, especially in Wikipedia) and thoughtful musings on basic cultural reflexes, such as expelling anyone or anything that seems too “different” from whatever is usual.
The large supporting cast convincingly navigated the complex story as they made their way through the cluttered set (more on that below) — even if a few opening-night jumps off the raised section fell short (with no visible harm done). The choreography designed by Lauren Yalango-Grant and Christopher Cree Grant proved essential to seamlessly move actors from town parade to factory to Governor’s mansion to the Frank’s house to prison and finally to a hanging tree.
As mentioned above, Dane Laffrey (scenic design) and Heather Gilbert (lighting design) created a set full of items. It resembled, at least partly, an estate sale with random china, chairs, benches, pews strewn around a raised central platform large enough to host a dance, a press interview, an interrogation, a body discovery, courtroom, and a jail-cell picnic.
There was no attempt to hide backstage equipment along the wings. The rear wall often served as a projection screen. It seemed an economical solution to changing scenes by merely focusing attention from one stage area to another.
Another type of scenery was provided by Susan Hilferty and Mark Koss (costume designers) who managed to evoke a whole era via snappy dark suits and voluminous long dresses.
In addition to Chernin and DeMartino, others from the Broadway show included Prentiss E. Mouton, Danielle Lee Greaves, Bailee Endebrock, Caroline Fairweather and Sophia Manicone. Additional characters were portrayed by Griffin Binnicker, Evan Harrington, Ramone Nelson, Jack Roden, Andrew Samonsky, Chris Shyer, Michael Tacconi, Alison Ewing, Olivia Goosman, Jenny Hickman, Oluchi Nwaokorie, Robert Knight, Ben Cherington, Trevor James, Trista Moldovan, Ethan Riordan and Brian Vaughn.
Bottom Line: A very dark play for a very cold winter. In a way, it’s another example of how Leo Frank’s life and death is still used as fodder for spectacle. “A Town Without Pity” (1961 song not in this show) might well be an earworm after seeing Parade. (It’s on Spotify — and points out “No, it isn’t very pretty what a town without pity can do.”)
[Written by Laura Kennelly]