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For those unfamiliar with the musical, it revolves around the 1913-1915 trail of Leo Frank and the scandal that shook Atlanta and America. Frank, a man from Brooklyn, had moved to Georgia and was working as the superintendant of a pencil factory. He oversaw many employees, including a teenager named Mary Phagen. When Mary was found dead in the basement of the factory, Frank was immediately suspected, despite having alibis and no previous record.
Why? Leo Frank was a Jew.
(Photo Credit http://poeforward.blogspot.com/2010/08/deathday-leo-frank-1884-1915-innocent.html, an awesome blog about Edgar Allen Poe and his influence on pop culture!)
The score is peppered with jabs at Frank's religion, as the character Britt Craig uses the city's prejudice to jump start his career, like in the number "Real Big News".
"All I needed was a snippy, pissy Yankee all along!
Take this superstitious city, add one little Jew from Brooklyn
Plus a college education and a mousy little wife"
"So give him fangs, give him horns,
Give him scaly, hairy palms!
Have him droolin' out the corner of his mouth!
He's a master of disguise!
Check those bug-out creepy eyes!
Sure, that fella's here to rape the whole damned South!"
Segregated Atlanta is also a hot issue in the musical, as "That's What He Said" goes right to the most flinched at of words,
"Why they gonna call that man?
Wait a minute!
Lord, 'nother nigger:"
And the black community offers up, in the song "A Rumblin' and a Rollin'",
"I can tell you this, as a matter of fact,
That the local hotels wouldn't be so packed
If a little black girl had gotten attacked."
"'Cause a white man gonna get hung, you see.
There's a black man swingin' in ev'ry tree."
Leo Frank was given life in prison. A lynch mob (comprising of mostly KKK members) took him from his cell and hanged him from a tree.
Such harsh words accompany such amazing and challenging music. But the story here is a warning.
The Onstage Journal and writer Christopher Rawson (http://community.post-gazette.com/blogs/onstage/archive/2009/03/20/parade-musical-tragedy-powerfully-realized-at-point-park.aspx) offers a review and a great piece of insight on the show.
"It's not a comfortable experience. But there's a lot to be said for a show that can stir passion so deeply. Out of this ugly material, Brown, Uhry and Hal Prince (co-conceiver and original director) create a powerful dramatization of the seamy side of American self-conceit."
The Renegade Theater production of Parade plays from February 3rd to the 19th, and you can reserve tickets or find out more by visiting their website,
http://www.renegadetheatercompany.org/
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