Intense, powerful ‘Parade’ marches on
THE OLD RED HILLS: The national touring company of Jason Robert Brown, Alfred Uhry and Harold Prince’s Parade, is at the Orpheum Theatre as part of the BroadwaySF season through June 8. Photo by Joan Marcus
When you think of parades and musical theater, you’re likely to recall Dolly Levi embracing life before the parade passes her by or Fanny Brice daring the world not to rain on her parade.
This musical theater Parade – historical, serious and deeply moving – almost feels like a different art form entirely. With a book by playwright Alfred Uhry and a rich, glorious score by Jason Robert Brown, this show was jolting in its power when it premiered on Broadway in 1998, and now, more than a quarter century later, it feels even more resonant, more trenchant and, sadly, more chilling. Turns out stories of miscarried justice; corruption of politicians and religious leaders; and the ravages of racism and antisemitism are as relevant in this country now as they’ve ever been.
The national touring production of the recent Broadway revival masterfully directed by Michael Arden opened a the Orpheum Theatre as part of the BroadwaySF season this week – a week that saw the murder of two Israeli Embassy staff members murdered in Washington, D.C. But choose any week in recent memory and the horrors of this show will feel related in some way.
DO IT ALONE: Talia Suskauer is Lucille Frank. Photo by Joan Marcus
Co-conceived by the legendary Hal Prince, who also directed the original production, Parade is an original musial based on the case of Leo Frank, a Brooklyn-born Jew who who marries a Southern Jewish woman and works as the superintendent of a pencil factory in Atlanta. When a 13-year-old girl is found murdered at the factory, Frank emerges as one of the prime suspects. After a sham of a trial in which witnesses were clearly coached, blackmailed and/or lying, Frank is convicted.
That gets us to the end of Act 1, and what follows is, in a word, devastating. But what is so extraordinary about Parade is how it uses music to enrich and complicate the story, beginning with “The Old Red Hills of Home,” a folksy Georgia tune sung by a young Confederate soldier heading into the Civil War. That song creates a through line of Confederate pride that runs into early 20th-century Atlanta, when Leo Frank makes his way through a Confederate Memorial Day parade on his way to work on the fateful day when the young girl, Mary Phagan, was killed. Brown’s folk tune comes back in various ways throughout the show’s 2 1/2 hours, and it’s somehow more unnerving and more moving each time, especially when the entire ensemble is singing in full-throated choral glory – you want to revel in its beauty, but its power (and twisted patriotism) is terrifying.
The dichotomy of Parade is profound. Here is a beautiful musical, with a sumptuous, magnificently performed score in service to a story full of ugliness, violence, rage and humanity at its worst. Here is the story of a young married couple – an out-of-place New York man and a Southern belle – who seem to have little in common (not the least of which is their Northern and Southern approach to Judaism). Their tragic circumstances somehow turn their marriage into a true romance full of dedication, mutual respect and deepening love and appreciation.
ALL THE WASTED TIME: Talia Suskauer and Max Chernin as Lucille and Leo Frank have a picnic in a jail cell. Photo by Joan Marcus
This touring production is first class from top to bottom, beginning with the openness of Dane Laffrey’s set with a raised center platform surrounded by onlookers and backed by a giant projection screen (where we often see chilling historical photos of the people, places and objects involved in the story). The cast, as a whole, is a knockout – their choral work, as previously mentioned, is overwhelming – with stunning central performances from Max Chernin as Leo Frank and Talia Suskauer as Lucille Frank.
Great art about something truly terrible is a complicated thing to process. Parade, with subsequent revisions for a London production and then the Broadway revival, has seen changes to its score and its structure. They are all for the better and all to tell a nightmarish tale of American history in more efficient and more powerful ways. Balancing the beauty of the work with the horror of the story makes for a challenging and rewarding theatrical experience. But here’s the thing: it’s the feeling of witnessing the story in the past while living it in the present that tempers the joy of artistic achievement with the despair of where we are as a nation.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Parade, with music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown and book by Alfred Uhry continues through June 8 as part of the BroadwaySF season at the Orpheum Theatre, 1192 Market St., San Francisco. Running time: 2 hours and 30 minutes (including one intermission). Tickets are $57.33-$260.91 (subject to change). Call 888-746-1799 or visit broadwaysf.com.
