Court and Spark

All of this is in the hands of an inexperienced director, Meghan L.
Pearson (not to be confused with her mother and assistant director,
Deborah Pearson), who marshals more than 30 performers, often all on
stage at the same time. Well, audiences have to be prepared to be
surprised, in C.S. Lewis’ words, surprised by joy. Parade is currently running on the boards at Appleseed’s stomping grounds, the Atonement Lutheran Church, 116 W. Glen Ave.

First, on acquiring a taste for Jason Robert Brown’s music. Hal
Prince’s initial choice was Stephen Sondheim, who refused the
commission. That makes Brown post-Sondheim in two ways, not just because
he’s from a younger generation. His work, like that of his
contemporary, Adam Guettel (Floyd Collins, Light in the Piazza),
will strike audiences brought up on Andrew Lloyd Webber (or Rodgers and
Hammerstein!) as cerebral and tuneless. Brown’s previous hit, The Last Five Years, a favorite of local girl made big Carrie Manolakos, has been performed several times here to select but enthusiastic audiences. 

The only way to unlock Brown’s mysteries is to taste what he has to offer, as with single malt whisky. The CD of Parade
may be fine, but you have to experience Brown in context, hear how his
harmonies focus emotion and build a scene, to know how much soul is in
what he gives us.

The 97-year-old episode behind the musical has not been forgotten and
is hardly obscure. A Jewish pencil manufacturer, Leo Frank (Ryan Benz),
is accused when one of his 13-year-old employees, Mary Phagan (Hali
Greenhouse), is found dead in his factory. While there is no evidence
against Frank, also seen as a Yankee intruder and an intellectual (he’s a
Cornell graduate), the right-wing press stirs up a thunderstorm of
vitriol. Playing to nativist, class and ethnic hatreds, strikingly
similar to today’s AM talk radio, hellfire journalist Tom Watson (Gerrit
Vander Werff Jr.) drives the mob to demand that nothing less than a
guilty verdict can be accepted. The jury complies. When Gov. John Slaton
(Jay Burris), a man of weak but real conscience, recognizes that the
conviction is bogus, he too faces the wrath of Watson and the angry,
righteous mass.

Outside court, Frank’s innocence has been proven many times over. His
accusers, led by Watson, went on to rejuvenate the Ku Klux Klan, while
his defenders founded the Anti-Defamation League. Watson anticipates
this in the scary solo, “Where Will You Stand When the Flood Comes?”
Many will know the outlines of the story from more than 20 books or the
memorable TV miniseries, The Murder of Mary Phagan (1988), with Jack Lemmon and Peter Gallagher.  

None of this will sound like a musical, but Atlanta-born Alfred Uhry (Driving Miss Daisy), whose family had links to Leo Frank, has something else on his mind. He sees Parade as
an adult love story between Leo and his wife Lucille Frank (Bridget
Moriarty). In this version Lucille is an active rather than passive
player; her aggressive dancing with and interrogation of the governor
are key to determining the action in the second act. In casting
Moriarty, an instructor in the Syracuse University Musical Theater
Program, Pearson knew she needed a strong professional. Thus Moriarty’s
second-act solo, “Doing It Alone,” and even more the first act’s “You
Don’t Know This Man,” are among the most affecting numbers in the show.

The title of Parade, initially promising celebration, can be
seen to carry two meanings. First, action begins and closes with an
actual parade for Confederate Memorial Day, April 26. Each was a time of
grievance and chest-thumping, when anyone, such as Yankees, Jews or
blacks, not linked to the Lost Cause, was subject to harassment and
bullying. Secondly, the show gives us a continuing flow of blowhards,
miscreants and also the innocent, a parade that compares to a pageant or
even an epic. For the show this means that even with clearly demarcated
heroes and villains, nearly everyone gets into the act. Many of the
songs come from characters that appear, like the Young Soldier (Colin
Keating), who sings the patriotic prologue, “The Old Red Hills of Home.”
When he’s off the stage, Keating also has time to play the synthesizer
in music director Dan Williams’ seven-player orchestra.

For Meghan L. Pearson the heady success of Parade will be
recognized in the well-rehearsed dance numbers (she is also the
choreographer), quick and tidy entrances and exits, sure and steady
control of tone during comic interludes, such as the incompetent defense
from lawyer Luther Rosser (Bob Brophy), and the smooth, confident
pacing. Perhaps even more important are the hours she spent in
auditioning dozens of applicants, many of them very young, over the
summer. There are more people in town who can sing and dance than we
knew. So great was the competition that one of the few familiar faces,
usually saucy leading lady Rita Worlock, takes a supporting role. As
Mrs. Phagan, the victim’s mother, she’s great in an important solo, “My
Child Will Forgive Me.”

Pearson’s casting needs called for youthful black talent, in the
persons of star prosecution witness Jim Conley (Anthony Wright), as well
as Riley (Evan Rohadfox), Angela (Imani Williams) and night watchman
Newt Lee (J.P. Kaya). Perhaps because the African themes are so
theatrical, all their numbers work well, starting with the second act’s
opener, “A Rumblin’ and a Rollin.’” Conley’s first-act solo, accusing
Leo, “That’s What He Said,” is a masterwork of insinuation and
ambiguity. But the second act’s “Feel the Rain Fall,” in which Uhry’s
book pins the guilt on witness Conley (supported by recent historians)
while he’s serving on a chain gang, is the most dazzling episode in all
of Parade.

Also strong in the huge cast are Nick Ziobro as Frankie, Mary’s
vengeful boyfriend, Casey Callaghan as Hugh Dorsey, the self-assured
prosecutor, and Ben Stanford as Britt Craig, the drunken but opportunist
journalist.

Producer Dan Stevens has his hands full, along with scenic designer
Chuck Moody. Meghan L. Pearson (she’s everywhere) also designed the
costumes and lighting.

We never expected to see Parade at all. What a bonanza that
it’s so well-done and moving. Anyone who cares about what community
theater can accomplish will kick himself or herself for missing it.

This production runs through Sept. 25. See Times Table for information.