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| Mrs Frank (Spero) is Determined! (Holmes) |
All the attention of turn of the century south has mostly gone to the work of the late great, Harper Lee in her book, To Kill a Mockingbird, about a racially prejudiced frame up of a crime of an innocent Black man, how we forget that is was not just racism in the south, but was antisemitism was alive and well in the deep south. In Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown’s musical, Parade, currently being produced by Sound Theater and directed by our Fave, Troy Wageman, the same kind of story happens which is 100% documented of which the lowest man on the totem pole is a New York-bred, Jewish business man, Leo Frank (Played by the Fab, Jeff Orton) being accused of the Rape and murder of a 13 yr old girl that he didn't commit.
Uhry’s book, which dramatizes the story of Leo Frank, pointedly underlines a variety of societal failings: a corrupt government eager to appear tough on crime, an economically goaded wave of racial tension, a media consumed by blood lust that makes this story very timely in today's society. The book’s lack of subtlety actually works well in concert with Brown’s complex but the FAB score from folk to gospel to military marches to jazz under the direction of Nathan Young is a delight to a very lackluster story.
