Parade (1998)

 

I adore all three cast recordings I own from Jason Robert Brown shows, but this one remains my favorite.  While The Last Five Years is masterful storytelling and some of the sequences in Songs for a New World are simply breathtaking, Parade tells its searing story pretty remarkably through its music.

 

Parade is based on true events; in 1913 in Georgia, a factory owner named Leo Frank was put on trial for the rape and murder of one of his young employees.  Frank was an outsider among his Atlanta neighbors, a wealthy Jewish man hailing from Brooklyn.  He was convicted of all charges on scant evidence, and when his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, he was killed by a lynch mob.

 

If that doesn’t say Broadway musical, I don’t know what does.  I jest, of course, but it’s a powerful show, examining the intersection of anti-Semitism, racism, classism, and sectionalism at work in these events and the devastating effect it has.  To the people of Atlanta, Leo is the obvious suspect because he isn’t one of them.  He’s a northerner with no true loyalty to them, no ancestors who fought for “the old red hills of home.”  He follows a “foreign” religion with words and customs unknown to them.  Perhaps most damning, he’s a have among have-nots.  When the horrific violation and murder of a 13-year-old girl is thrown into that crucible, people are quick to embrace the vicious rumors circulating around him. 

 

What I really appreciate about this show is that it doesn’t paint Leo as a wronged saint.  Although the above social issues are important considerations, Leo’s manner and carriage also have a hand in the witch hunt.  He doesn’t like his neighbors any more than they like him; in social settings, he’s haughty, stiff, and standoffish.  He’s brusque and dismissive of his employees, and his own wife regards him as a cold fish and doesn’t know how to relate to him.  When even he’s arrested and things are looking bleak, his pride won’t allow her help or comfort.

 

This is important, because Leo can be innocent without being a likeable or admirable person.  Not everyone falsely accused of a crime is in actuality a paragon, not even those falsely accused due to bigotry.  However, that doesn’t mean his treatment or his fate is any less undeserved.  It makes for a richer and more complex tale.  And beyond Leo’s story, the show further challenges our reactions.  In “A Rumblin’ and a Rollin’,” the working-class black characters resent the outpouring of northern support for Leo when “There’s a black man swingin’ in ev’ry tree / And they don’t never pay attention.”

 

That last bit leads naturally into the music.  Goodness gracious, the music!  Simply gorgeous modern Broadway melodies infused with Southern flair and accompaniment.  The score is by turns soaring, haunting, and tragic, and the lyrics beautifully tell the story.  The characters lay themselves bare in song, revealing themselves in profound ways.  Another post might be in order; I’ve already rambled for a while, and the music here deserves further examination.

 

Warnings

 

Some swearing, violence, sexual references, and very dark subject matter.