Review: PARADE at Orpheum Theatre

A true story of unspeakable injustice is beautifully realized in Parade, deservedly winner of the 2023 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. Like its dramatic courtroom cousins Inherit then Wind and To Kill a Mockingbird, Parade brings humanity to a tragedy, faces to the pictures projected on a huge backdrop screen, and a heightened emotional realism through Jason Robert Browns’ Tony winning score. Gorgeously staged by Michael Arden, its huge cast is always in motion, amazingly lit to create an atmosphere of hot and dusty 1913 Georgia.

Leo Frank (Max Chernin) and his wife Lucille (Talia Suskauer) are Jews in Atlanta, struggling with antisemitism and ostracization. He’s from Brooklyn and can’t understand the southern mentality. The Confederate Memorial Celebration seems ludicrous to Leo, celebrating a defeat. But it shows us the almost religious fervor of the populace – a proud people mired in prejudice and racism. When a little girl is murdered, Frank becomes the easy scapegoat, goaded on by a ruthless yellow journalism campaign, and a heartless prosecutor. Frank is quickly convicted and sentenced to hang.

Pulitzer, Academy and Tony award winner Alfred Uhry knows how to tell a story and combined with Brown’s score, the characters become flesh and blood – villains and victims, lovers, and liars. The ensemble cast includes seven from the 2023 revival, and the technical components are outstanding. A sham trial, manufactured evidence, false testimony, mob mentality and hatred- sound vaguely familiar? With these themes in mind, Parade is a timeless cautionary tale of the very worst of human nature. By wrapping it up in a sumptuous musical setting, we’re more easily engaged in the drama and the horror.

Parade continues through June 8th. Tickets available at broadwaysf.com.

Photo credits: Joan Marcus