Parade is a musical with a book by Alfred Uhry and music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown. The musical is a dramatization of the 1913 trial and imprisonment and 1915 lynching of Jewish American Leo Frank in Georgia.
The musical premiered on Broadway in December 1998 and won Tony Awards for Best Book and Best Original Score (out of nine nominations) and six Drama Desk Awards. After closing on Broadway in February 1999, the show has had a US national tour and a few professional productions in the US and UK. Its 2023 Broadway staging was nominated for six Tony Awards, winning two, including Best Revival of a Musical.
Background and genesis
The musical dramatizes the 1913 trial of Jewish factory manager Leo Frank, who was accused and convicted of raping and murdering a thirteen-year-old employee, Mary Phagan. The trial, sensationalized by the media, aroused antisemitic tensions in Atlanta and the U.S. state of Georgia. When Frank's death sentence was commuted to life in prison by the departing Governor of Georgia, John M. Slaton, in 1915 due to his detailed review of over 10,000 pages of testimony and possible problems with the trial, Leo Frank was transferred to a prison in Milledgeville, Georgia, where a lynching party seized and kidnapped him. Frank was taken to Phagan's hometown of Marietta, Georgia, and he was hanged from an oak tree. The events surrounding the investigation and trial led to two groups emerging: the revival of the defunct KKK and the birth of the Jewish Civil Rights organization the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
Director Harold Prince turned to Jason Robert Brown to write the score after Stephen Sondheim turned the project down. Prince's daughter, Daisy, had brought Brown to her father's attention. Book writer Alfred Uhry, who grew up in Atlanta, had personal knowledge of the Frank story, as his great-uncle owned the pencil factory run by Leo Frank.Pogrebin, Robin. "Songwriting Challenge of Historic Proportions", The New York Times, December 22, 1998, p. E1
The musical's story concludes that the likely killer was the factory janitor Jim Conley, the key witness against Frank at the trial. The villains of the piece are the ambitious and corrupt prosecutor Hugh Dorsey (later the governor of Georgia and then a judge) and the rabidly anti-semitic publisher Tom Watson (later elected a U.S. senator). Prince and Uhry emphasized the evolving relationship between Frank and his wife Lucille.Variety, Legit Reviews, Charles Isherwood, December 21, 1998 – January 3, 1999, p. 85 Their relationship shifts from cold to warm in songs like "Leo at Work/What am I Waiting For?," "You Don't Know This Man," "Do it Alone," and "All the Wasted Time". The poignancy of the couple, who fall in love in the midst of adversity, is the core of the work. It makes the tragic outcome – the miscarriage of justice – even more disturbing.Christian Science Monitor (Boston, MA), "Poignant Parade probes America's heart", Iris Fanger, p. 19, December 18, 1998
The show was Brown's first Broadway production. His music, according to critic Charles Isherwood, has "subtle and appealing melodies that draw on a variety of influences, from pop-rock to folk to rhythm and blues and gospel."
Plot Act I In Marietta, Georgia, during the American Civil War, the sounds of drums herald the appearance of a young Confederate soldier who bids farewell to his sweetheart as he goes to fight for his homeland. The years pass, and it is 1913. The soldier has become an old one-legged veteran preparing to march in the annual Confederate Memorial Day parade ("The Old Red Hills of Home"). As the parade begins ("The Dream of Atlanta"), Leo Frank, a Jewish man from Brooklyn, New York, is deeply uncomfortable living here due to his religion, college education and the cultural differences between the North and South ("How Can I Call This Home?"). His discomfort spills into his relationship with his wife Lucille, a more assimilated Jewish Georgian, who has planned an outdoor meal spoiled by Leo's decision to go in to work on a holiday. Meanwhile, two local teens, Frankie Epps and Mary Phagan, ride a trolley car and flirt. Frankie wants Mary to go to the movies with him, but Mary playfully resists, insisting her mother will not let her ("The Picture Show"). Mary, who has recently been laid off, leaves to collect her final paycheck from the pencil factory managed by Leo.
Lucille bemoans the state of her marriage, feeling unappreciated by a man so wrapped up in himself and unfulfilled in life; she wonders whether Leo was the right match for her ("Leo at Work" / "What Am I Waiting For?"). Mary arrives in Leo's office to collect her paycheck. That night, police Detective Starnes and Officer Ivey rouse Leo from his sleep, and without telling him why, demand he accompany them to the factory, where Mary has been found raped and murdered in the basement. The police immediately suspect Newt Lee, the African-American night watchman who discovered the body ("Interrogation"). Lee, under interrogation, maintains his innocence, but he inadvertently directs Starnes' suspicion upon Leo, who did not answer his telephone when Lee called him to report the incident. Leo is arrested, but not charged. Mrs. Phagan, Mary's mother, becomes aware of Mary's death.
Reporter Britt Craig sees in Mary's murder the possibility of a career-making story ("Big News"). Craig attends Mary's funeral, where the townspeople of Marietta are angry, mournful, and baffled by the shattering tragedy ("There is a Fountain" / "It Don't Make Sense"). Frankie and Tom Watson, editor of The Jeffersonian, an extremist right-wing newspaper, swear revenge on Mary's killer ("Tom Watson's Lullaby"). Governor John Slaton pressures the local prosecutor Hugh Dorsey to get to the bottom of the crime. Dorsey, an ambitious politician with a "lousy conviction record", together with Starnes and Ivey, interrogate Newt Lee, learning nothing. Dorsey releases Newt, reasoning that "hanging another Nigra ain't enough this time. We gotta do better." He blames Leo and sends Starnes and a reluctant Ivey to find eyewitnesses ("Something Ain't Right"). Craig eagerly begins an effective campaign vilifying Leo ("Real Big News").
Leo meets with his lawyer Luther Z. Rosser, who vows to win the case. Meanwhile, Dorsey makes a deal with factory janitor and ex-convict Jim Conley to testify against Leo in exchange for immunity for a previous escape from prison. Lucille, hounded by reporters, collapses from the strain and rebukes Craig when he attempts to obtain an interview ("You Don't Know This Man"). She tells Leo that she cannot bear to see his trial, but he begs her to stay in the courtroom, as her absence would make him look guilty.
Leo's trial begins, presided over by Judge Roan. A hysterical crowd gathers outside the courtroom, as Watson spews invective ("Hammer of Justice") and Dorsey begins his prosecution ("Twenty Miles from Marietta"). He produces a series of witnesses, most of whom give trumped evidence fed to them by Dorsey. Frankie testifies, falsely, that Mary said Leo "looks at her funny", a sentiment echoed verbatim by three of Mary's teenage co-workers, Iola, Essie and Monteen ("The Factory Girls"). In a fantasy sequence, Leo becomes the lecherous seducer they describe ("Come Up to My Office"). Mary's mother testifies ("My Child Will Forgive Me"), and the Franks' housekeeper Minnie McKnight claims Leo came home in an agitated state the night of the murder and that his marriage to Lucille was abusive. The prosecution's star witness, Jim Conley, claims that he witnessed the murder and helped Leo conceal the crime ("That's What He Said"). Leo is desperate. As Dorsey whips the courtroom into a frenzy, Leo delivers a heartfelt statement, pleading to be believed ("It's Hard to Speak My Heart"), but it is not enough. He is found guilty and sentenced to hang. The crowd breaks out into a jubilant cakewalk as Lucille and Leo watch, terrified ("Summation and Cakewalk").
Act II It's now 1915, as Leo appeals the case. The northern press strongly disapproves of the way the trial was conducted, as African-American domestics wonder if the reaction would have been as strong if the victim had been Black ("A Rumblin' and a Rollin'"). Lucille tries to help Leo with his appeal but reveals crucial information to Craig, leading to an argument between herself and Leo ("Do it Alone"). She finds Governor Slaton at a party ("Pretty Music") to advocate for Leo, accusing Slaton of being a fool or a coward if he accepts the verdict. Meanwhile, Watson tells Dorsey that he will support his bid for governor if he makes one. Dorsey and Judge Roan go on a fishing trip, where they discuss the political climate and the upcoming election ("The Glory").
The governor re-opens the case, and Leo and Lucille rejoice ("This Is Not Over Yet"). Slaton visits the factory girls, who admit to their exaggeration (“Factory Girls" (reprise)), and Minnie, who says Dorsey intimidated her and made her sign a statement (“Minnie McKnight's Reprise”). Slaton also visits Jim Conley, who is in jail as an accessory to the murder. Conley sticks to his story despite its noticeable inconsistencies with the evidence, and along with his Chain Gang, refuses to give Slaton any information ("Blues: Feel the Rain Fall"). A year later, after deliberation, Slaton commutes Leo's sentence to life in prison in Milledgeville, Georgia, a move that ends his political career. The citizens of Marietta, led by Dorsey and Watson, are enraged and riot ("Where Will You Stand When the Flood Comes?").
Leo is at a prison work-farm. Lucille visits, and he realizes his deep love for his wife and how much he has underestimated her ("All the Wasted Time"). Later, a party of masked men (including Starnes, Ivey, Frankie, and the Old Confederate Soldier) arrive and kidnap Leo. They take him to Marietta and demand he confess to the murder on pain of death. Leo refuses, and although Ivey is convinced of his innocence, the group prepares to kill him. As his last request, Leo has a sack tied around his waist, since he is wearing only his nightshirt, and asks Ivey to give his wedding ring to Lucille. The group hangs him from an oak tree ("Sh'ma"). Eight months later, on Confederate Memorial Day 1916, a remorseful Britt Craig gives Leo's ring, which has been delivered to him anonymously, to Lucille. He is surprised that she has no plans to leave Georgia, now governed by Dorsey, but she refuses to let Leo's ordeal be for nothing. Alone, she gives in to her grief, but takes comfort in believing that Leo is with God and free from his ordeal. Outside, the annual Memorial Day Parade begins ("Finale").
Musical numbers
Act I Prologue: "The Old Red Hills of Home" – Young Soldier, Old Soldier, Ensemble Anthem: "The Dream of Atlanta" – Townspeople "How Can I Call This Home?" – Leo and Townspeople "The Picture Show" – Mary and Frankie "Leo At Work" / "What Am I Waiting For?" – Leo and Lucille "Interrogation: "I Am Trying to Remember..." – Newt Lee "Big News!" – Britt Craig Funeral: "There is a Fountain" / "It Don't Make Sense" – Frankie and Townspeople "Watson's Lullaby" – Tom Watson "Somethin' Ain't Right" – Hugh Dorsey "Real Big News" – Britt Craig and Townspeople "You Don't Know This Man" – Lucille "People of Atlanta" – Fiddling John, Tom Watson and Townspeople "Twenty Miles From Marietta" – Hugh Dorsey "Frankie's Testimony" – Frankie and Mary "Factory Girls / Come Up to My Office" – Iola, Essie, Monteen / Leo "Newt Lee's Testimony" – Newt Lee "My Child Will Forgive Me" – Mrs. Phagan "That's What He Said" – Jim Conley and Townspeople "Leo's Statement: It's Hard to Speak My Heart" – Leo "Closing Statements and Verdict" – Jurors and Townspeople
Act II "It Goes On and On" - Britt Craig "Rumblin' and a Rollin'" – Riley, Angela, Jim Conley and Newt Lee "Do It Alone" – Lucille "Pretty Music" – Governor Slaton "Letter to the Governor" – Judge Roan