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Parade Finally Marches into California
By Rob Stevens
*Critic's Choice*
Finally, more than five years after winning Tony Awards for Best Score
and Best Book of
a Musical, Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry's Parade has finally
received a
professional production in California, albeit as a staged concert. From the
dedicated performances
on stage and the enthusiastic response from the near capacity audience at the
Alex Theatre on
September 15, this event was anything but a concert. With an augmented
orchestra (thanks to a
generous donation by writer/director David Lee) and a cast of 34, about the
only thing missing
was a solid set, but it would have been superfluous. Calvin Remsberg's expert
direction inspired
his cast to give their all, even with script in hand for the dialogue scenes.
It's amazing what
dedication and talent can do with only 25 hours of rehearsal.! Musical Theatre
Guild has been
impressing audiences for the past seven years with their staged concerts of
little seen American
musicals. Opening their eighth season, and first as a resident company at
Glendale's Alex Theatre,
they have produced their best ever.
Parade's story is an account of love and honor fighting bigotry
and racism in 1913
Georgia as it depicts the trial of Leo Frank, a Brooklyn-born Jew who was tried
for the murder of
a 13-year old girl whom he employed in a pencil factory he managed. The play
begins more than a
half century earlier as a young Georgia man sets off to war to defend "The Old
Red Hills of
Home" from the damn Yankees of the North during the American Civil War. It's a
brilliant
metaphor because, for the people of 1913 Atlanta, that war is still waging and
they have yet to
admit defeat. Uhry's book touches on themes familiar in his other award-winning
works,
Driving Miss Daisy, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, such as the assimilated
Southern Jews
who are so out of touch with their heritage, they don't know the simplest
Yiddish terms.
Jason Robert Brown has composed a score so rich in depth and subtext,
so varied from
ragtime to gospel, and yet nearly operatic in scope and vision, that it is a
true marvel to
experience it. In Brown, whose Songs For a New World (see review
under "Other Stories" on the Main Page)
recently introduced the young composer to Southland audiences, the
American musical
theater has finally found a successor to Steven Sondheim. His is a career to
follow closely.
The cast was exemplary, starting with Ira Denmark as Frank, not an easy
man to like or
love, but one who was probably innocent and railroaded to the hangman's noose
due to his
"differences." Misty Cotton delivered yet another gem in a series of
breathtaking performances as
Lucille, Frank's wife, who finally finds the love and the courage to fight for
her husband's life. The
entire ensemble etched strong portraits, but standing out were Norman Large as
the wily
prosecutor, Chuck Bergman as the governor with a conscience, Erik Altemus as
Frankie, LaQuin
Groves as Newt, Damon Kirsche as a drunken, cynical reporter, Gordon Goodman as
a racist
publisher, Joe Hart as a folksy but incompetent lawyer, and Michael A. Shepperd
as a tainted
witness. Bravos to all involved!
Along with the heinous crimes depicted in the musical, it's a major
criminal offense to
theatergoers that this musical has been so neglected, not only here, but
throughout the country.
Don't add your crime of missing this production to the list.
Parade, produced by Jennifer Gordon, Carol Kline and Patty Paul for Musical
Theatre Guild at
the 1000 Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 1000 Oaks Blvd. in 1000 Oaks. 818-848-
6844. Sunday,
Sept. 21 at 2:30 & 7:30 p.m.)
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