In Parade, History Isn’t Over Yet - Aarushi Bahadur

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Parade is not a show that’s easy to watch. As audiences take their seats, they’re confronted with a projection of the “Leo Frank Lynching” memorial plaque in Marietta, Georgia. The musical tells the harrowing true story of Leo Frank (Max Chernin), a Jewish man from New York accused in 1913 of murdering a 13-year-old white girl at the pencil factory he managed in Atlanta and his subsequent lynching in 1915. First premiered in 1998 under the direction of Hal Prince, Parade features a book by Alfred Uhry and music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown. The 2023 Broadway revival, directed by Michael Arden, brings a powerful and timely dramatization that’s unafraid to lean into its darkness to life once more.


Arden, who won a Tony for his direction, excels at bringing subtext to the foreground. Mary Phagan (Olivia Goosman), the girl whose murder reignites the fury of the post-Confederate South, returns in several scenes to stand eerily stock-still atop a ladder behind the scrim, positioning her as a martyr. Another chilling touch is the projection of grainy historical photos of the characters, news headlines, and, most hauntingly, images from the lynching–a simple and somber way to ground the show in history and, crucially, makes the show feel terrifyingly real.

At the heart of the production are the stellar performances of its lead actors. Chernin offers a compelling portrayal of Leo Frank, balancing intellectual detachment with an underlying vulnerability, while his expressive voice shines in songs like “It’s Hard to Speak My Heart.” However, the show’s emotional weight shifts in the second act to Leo’s wife, Lucille (Talia Suskauer), whose steadfast assuredness and powerful vocals make her a standout.

The production also explores tensions between Jewish and Black communities of Georgia, pitted against one another by men like prosecutor Hugh Dorsey (an intense Andrew Samonsky). In the biting Act II opener “A Rumblin’ and a Rollin’,” Black workers in the governor’s mansion sing “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 been attacked.” Though these Black characters are otherwise barely characterized, their presence is distinctly felt as they stand silently at the corners of the stage during the patriotic “The Old Red Hills of Home,” positioned both within and outside the narrative. The direction establishes a visual binary that Leo cannot comply with—a manifestation of the exclusion of minorities from the patriotic American dream. 


Parade naturally lends itself to highlighting ongoing struggles with racism and antisemitism—an intent made evident by the show both beginning and ending with “The Old Red Hills of Home.” When a chorus of white Georgians hold up Confederate flags and chant for Leo’s death, it feels reminiscent of Jan. 6. It doesn’t help that newspaperman and voice of the ‘Old South’ Tom Watson (Griffin Binnicker), looks unnervingly like JD Vance. The intent resonates clearly, especially when Goosman and Jack Roden (Frankie Epps) return in contemporary dress for the finale. 


Parade is a powerful reminder that history is not as distant as it seems. As Leo sings in the musical’s showstopper: “And no, this isn’t over/Hell, it’s just begun.”

Parade is playing at the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis through Jan. 26.

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