Parade |
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Review
by Willard Manus More opera than traditional Broadway musical, PARADE leans heavily on Jason Robert Brown's score to tell its story. His songs are far more important than Alfred Uhry's skimpy book (which unjustifiably won a Tony award back in 1998 when the show premiered at Lincoln Center). Brown, a
Harold Prince protege, also won a Tony for his contributions to PARADE--which
are as impressive as they are numerous. Brown composed words and music
for twenty-five numbers, almost all of which have the heft and passion
of a Verdi or Puccini opera. Brown, who lives in LA and teaches at USC,
is without doubt the fairhaired boy of the American musical (his other
works include 13, Songs For a New World and The Trumpet of the Swan). |
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Phagan (Rose
Sezniak) is killed on the day of the parade. Normally a black man would
be charged with a heinous crime like that, but in this case a demagogue
and future U.S. Senator named Tom Watson (P.J. Griffith) decided more
political capital could be mined by putting the blame on a Jew. With the
local Hearst newspaper shrieking for Frank's blood, a rigged trial took
place, at which Jim Conley (David St. Louis), a black with a long criminal
record, testified falsely that he had seen Frank abduct the girl. |
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It's not a pretty story, but thanks to Brown, Uhry, Harold Prince (who co-conceived the project and first directed it in New York), and Rob Ashford (who re-directed it in London and now L.A.), PARADE unfolds with mounting power and poignancy. The tragedy of Leo Frank truly does have operatic stature. (Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., L.A. 213-628-2772). |