Don't Let This "Parade" Pass You By

"Parade"

Book by Alfred Uhry; music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown; co-conceived and directed on Broadway by Harold Prince; director, Paul Daigneault; musical director/conductor, José Delgado; choreographer, David Connolly; scenic design, Eric Levenson; costume design, Stacey Stephens; lighting design, Karen Perlow

Featured cast in order of appearance:

Austin Lesch, Young Confederate Soldier/Frankie Epps
Paul D. Farwell, Old Confederate Soldier/Judge Roan
Bridge Beirne, Lucille Frank
Brendan McNab, Leo Frank
David Krinitt, Hugh Dorsey
Terrence O'Malley, Gov. John Slaton
Kristen Sweeney, Sally Slaton
Felicia Blum, Mary Phagan
Tess Primack, Iola Stover
Edward M. Barker, Jim Conley
Nicholas Ryan Rowe, Newt Lee
Kerry  A. Dowling, Mrs. Phagan
Timothy John Smith, Britt Craig
Brett Cramp, Tom Watson
Shavanna Calder, Angela
Kenneth Harmon, Riley
Gerard Slattery, Luther Rosser
Andrew Durand, Fiddlin' John
Lauren Wood, Monteen
Alisa Walker, Essie

Performances: Now through June 16, SpeakEasy Stage, 527 Tremont Street, Boston
Box Office: 617-933-8600 or www.BostonTheatreScene.com

The SpeakEasy Stage in Boston is closing its 2006-2007 season with its biggest endeavor ever, the 29-cast member epic Tony Award-winning musical "Parade" by Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown. All I can say is, the company ought to spread its wings like this more often.

Rising beautifully to the challenge of such an ambitious and intricate piece of theater, SpeakEasy has finally come out of its cocoon and taken flight. From the evocative sets and lighting to the nine-piece orchestra that sounds like 20 to the magnificent voices of the entire cast, this "Parade" grabs hold of your heart and mind and doesn't let go till long after you've left the theater.

Reminiscent of "Inherit the Wind" and "Ragtime," "Parade" combines courtroom drama with historical narrative, depicting the impact that a notorious 1913 Georgia murder had on the suspect, his wife, the victim's friends and family, and the judicial, social, political, and religious institutions that influenced the community at that time. In stirring songs that manage to engage as well as inform, "Parade" pits the powerful Christian right against an interloping Jew from New York (Leo Frank) whose fastidious manner and reserved personality make him an easy scapegoat for the murder of one of his factory's teenaged workers, the beloved Mary Phagan.

As in "Inherit the Wind," the murder trial becomes a means by which reporters, lawyers and lobbyists try to advance their own futures and agenda. As in "Ragtime," cultures and races clash when a group of white Confederacy-celebrating southerners conspire to frame the Jewish northern businessman by pitting two of his black shop workers and several of his young female employees against him. While inflammatory and unapologetically stereotypical, "Parade" nevertheless manages to avoid becoming a simplistic diatribe against the Old South for two reasons: 1) the story is derived from fact and the characters and events are all real. Inspired by the same material, a high-profile 1988 television mini-series called "The Murder of Mary Phagan" won three Emmy Awards and starred Peter Gallagher, Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey and Richard Jordan; and 2) the heart and soul of the moralistic story rests not in the courtroom but in the hearts and souls of the two people most transformed by the trial – Leo Frank and his faithful southern wife Lucille.

As the central couple whose love and respect for each other grow profoundly while they battle together against the blood lust swirling out of control around them, Brendan McNab and Bridge Beirne are pitch perfect. McNab's Frank moves from a nervous, off-putting, obsessive pragmatist to a tender, open-hearted, passionate husband. Beirne gives us a devoted but pampered and socially cautious wife whose politely circumspect manner eventually melts away revealing a loyal tigress whose wits and determination make her a formidable advocate and partner. Their two powerful second act duets, "This Is not Over Yet" and "All the Wasted Time," are beautifully rendered, the first reflecting their separate but equal resolve to fight the tyranny of bigotry and injustice and the second expressing their mutual newfound joy in each other's inner qualities and strengths.

The supporting cast creates a vibrant and tension filled world around Beirne and McNab that is at once fanatical and frightening. Austin Lesch as Mary Phagan's young suitor Frankie Epps, David Krinitt as the ambitious prosecuting attorney Hugh Dorsey, and Brett Cramp as the evangelical newspaper publisher Tom Watson are the villainous catalysts who ignite the townspeople against Leo Frank. Terrence O'Malley as Gov. John Slaton and Paul D. Farwell as Judge Roan are the conflicted lawmakers whose consciences and souls could spell the end to their popularity and power. Timothy John Smith as the cynical, hard-drinking newspaper reporter Britt Craig is both comical and astute as he rides the wave of media frenzy to rejuvenate his flagging police beat career. Smith delivers the biggest showstopper of the evening, "Big News," and gets big laughs while doing so.

As the innocent girls who get swept up in the excitement of the trial once they and the jurors start to believe the accusations they are coached to lodge against Leo Frank, Tess Primack, Lauren Wood and Alisa Walker are every bit as convincing as the hysterical girls who cry witch against their neighbors in Arthur Miller's "The Crucible." As the murdered Mary Phagan, Felicia Blum appears specter-like several times to re-enact first the prosecutor's, then the defense attorney's, and finally the actual version of her brutal death. Gerard Slattery as the inept defense attorney Luther Rosser is appropriately blustery, and Nicholas Ryan Rowe as shop foreman and reluctant witness for the prosecution Newt Lee is painfully compliant but clearly not complicit.

One of the more chilling performances is turned in by Edward M. Barker as ex-convict Jim Conley, the supposed eye witness to Leo Frank's murder of Mary Phagan. Barker reveals Conley's charmingly manipulative side in his testimonial song, "That's What He Said," then takes prurient pleasure in fantasizing about young women while banging rocks on a chain gang in "Blues: Feel the Rain Fall." Barker is the embodiment of a sociopath who doesn't care what happens to him or anyone else. He makes Conley devoid of conscience or empathy. It's a riveting portrayal.

The creative team of director Paul Daigneault, music director and conductor José Delgado, choreographer David Connolly, scenic designer Eric Levenson, and lighting designer Karen Perlow orchestrate the cast, musicians, tech people and crew with impeccable precision. The fluid transition during the opening number, "The Old Red Hills Of Home," from a Civil War battlefield to 50 years later when townsfolk are cheering the procession of a Confederate Memorial Day parade is just one of many examples of SpeakEasy's deft handling of the show's many fast-moving scenes. Stacey Stephens' linen suits, cotton dresses, straw hats and period vests aptly suggest a sweltering summer in a post-Victorian southern town while blood red lighting on a tree-lined backdrop amplifies the anger and hatred that lies not far beneath the community's artificially genteel surface. Screened scrims that slide in and out on upstage tracks serve to suggest both the arched porticos of the governor's plantation mansion and the barred cells of a state prison. A raised platform accessed by a rough hewn wooden staircase doubles as austere factory office and dank county jail.

The 1999 Tony Award winner for best book and best original musical score and the winner of the Drama Desk Award for outstanding musical, "Parade" succeeds in weaving the complex forces of racism, anti-Semitism, fanaticism, power and politics into an emotionally gripping and provocative musical that is also deeply romantic. This finely tuned and fully expressed SpeakEasy production is as polished as the material.

PHOTOS

1. Brendan McNab as Leo Frank with the company of "Parade"
2. Brendan McNab as Leo and Bridge Beirne as Lucille Frank
3. Brendan McNab and Bridge Beirne as Leo and Lucille Frank facing the shopgirl accusers in the courtroom