Speakeasy is ending their season with Boston's first professional production of Uhry and Brown's Tony winning "Parade", a large cast music drama based on Alfred Uhry's book. He's better remembered for another modern classic, "Driving Miss Daisy." Jason Robert Brown is better known for whose quasi-autobiographical reversed order romance, "The Last Five Years" which Speakeasy also produced plus his revue, "Songs for a New World." Director Paul Daigneault has assembled a impressive cast of 29 musical actors to recount the fate of Leo Frank, a Jewish factory superintendent from Brooklyn, who managed his father-in-law's factory in Atlanta in 1913. He was falsely accused of raping one of his young female employees, sentenced to hang. When the governor commuted this sentence, citing faults with his trial, a mob lynched Frank. The real murderer, presumed in this retelling to be a black janitor who testified against Frank at his trial, was never tried.
Produced at Lincoln Center by Hal Prince, "Parade" had a disappointing first run, but has since found a place in the ongoing development of American Musical theatre. The principal cast members are two Speakeasy favorites, Brendan McNab, seen in "Kiss of the Spider Woman," as well as last fall's "See What I Wanna See," and Norton winner Bridget Beirne, who played Queenie in their production of La Chieusa's "The Wild Party." Also prominent is Timothy John Smith, recent IRNE winner from Lyric's "1776." as a local reporter who seizes on the case as his chance at fame. Paul D. Farwell plays both the through character of a Confederate veteran, and sickly Judge Roan. Austin Lesch, seen regularly locally and just in from the national tour of "Altar Boys: opens the show as the young confederate soldier, singing "The Old Red Hills of Home," something of a theme for the piece. Edward M. Barker is the rascally janitor.
There are also first rate performances from local music theatre regulars. David Krinnit is the suave and unprincipled prosecutor,Dorsey, while Terrence O'Malley is the "dancing governor", Slaton. Gerald Slattery doubles as the local barkeep and Frank's "good old boy" lawyer, Luther Rosser. Brent Cramp plays Tom Watson, a local firebrand preacher and anti-Semite, who joins forces with the prosecution. Speakeasy veteran Kerry A. Dowling, seen this fall in "The Women" is affecting as the victim's mother, Mrs. Phagan. Felicia Blum as Mary makes the most of her short comic number, "The Picture Show." The ensemble is made up largely of BosCon musical theatre students and both leads hold advanced degrees from that program. The musical proficiency of this large cast is impressive.
The show's design by Eric Levenson is an elegant unit set which efficiently suggests the various locales required. He's created a set of brick arches with black scrim sliding doors mid-stage which look out on a vista of the red hills. The several parades pass behind these while most of the action occurs downstage with scenes defined by a few pieces of furniture. Stacy Stephen's period costumes, including numerous changes, give a real sense of pre-WWI Atlanta, trying to make its way into the 20th century, still very much "olde South." IRNE winner Karen Perlow provides the necessary flexible lighting design. Changes of set pieces and furniture are handled a vista by the ensemble with admirable dispatch. Jose Delgado conducts a an ample pit orchestra with fellow IRNE winner Paul S. Katz at the keyboard. The two acts create a flowing narrative and a devastating retelling of this American tragedy.