Parade – REVIEW

American history is filled with monumental, often violent events that significantly impacted the formation of its society: revolution, civil war, and riots. It is also speckled with more isolated incidents that went on to become consequential beyond scale. One such incident was the murder of Mary Phagan and the conviction of Leo Frank, a young Jewish businessman, for the crime. It was a seminal moment that spawned two radically disparate movements and has been embedded in the American Jewish historical syllabus ever since. 

Leo Frank was born in Texas in 1884, but was raised in New York and attended the prestigious Cornell University. He moved to Atlanta, Georgia in 1908, married Georgian woman, Lucille Selig in 1910, and became superintendent of the National Pencil Company. The company employed very young workers at a time when child labour was not illegal but was frowned upon. 

Mary Phagan was 13 years old and worked at the pencil factory. On the morning of April 26, 1913, her crumpled body was discovered in the basement of the factory by the night watchman, Newt Lee. Frank was one of the last people to see Mary alive, having given her her pay envelope the previous evening. As such, he became an immediate suspect. Newt Lee and the janitor, a black man called Jim Conley, were also arrested. 

It was the South, temperatures had not yet cooled after the vanquishing of the Civil War. Racism was rife, Northerners were anathema, and Jews were the new blight. Leo Frank ticked two of the three persona-non-grata boxes. He was also educated at an elite college and had an un-endearingly indifference towards Atlanta society. 

After a hostile campaign against him, Frank was convicted and sentenced to hang. When the Georgian governor started harbouring doubts about Frank’s guilt, he commuted the sentence to life imprisonment, but an angry mob kidnapped Frank and lynched him. 

The story doesn’t exactly scream “musical theatre” yet legendary producer, Harold Prince saw potential and had it realised via a book by Alfred Uhry and songs by Jason Robert Brown. Parade premiered on Broadway in 1998 to critical and popular acclaim. Its revival last year in New York earned it six Tony nominations (two wins) among many other awards. 

It’s this revival production that is currently playing at the Seymour Centre. Aaron Robuck plays Leo Frank. Robuck was born and spent his childhood in the US, and his father is a Rabbi, so he has a strong connection to Frank. His portrayal is robust, convincing, honest, presenting Frank as a man who is egoistic, lacking in empathy, dismissive of his wife, and snobby towards the Atlanta locals. 

Robuck’s Frank is like a trapped animal, unable to fully understand his circumstances, and because of that, he garners sympathy. Robuck’s singing conveys pragmatism through to spiritual fervour and sentimentality, as his character takes an emotional journey through the story. 

Montana Sharp is Frank’s wife, Lucille (Lucy). She is treated with something close to disdain by Frank — that it is unintentional does not make it any less hurtful. Sharp’s Lucy is ostensibly polite and submissive however, she is clearly very shrewd and gutsy, using whatever means she has to help her husband receive justice. Sharp is very likeable with a strong, many-textured voice. 

Guillaume Gentil as Jim Conley has, arguably, the stand-out number in the show, “Blues: Feel The Rain Fall”. It has the musical elements of a chain-gang chant, but lyrically, though it’s vague, it hints at being a confession. Gentil knocks it out of the park. It’s very powerful. 

James Nation-Ingle plays Hugh Dorsey, the unscrupulous prosecutor who intimidates witnesses into making false testimony, and has machinations around supplanting the governor. Nation-Ingle is convincing as a kind of Southern villain, without straying into cliche. 

Nic Davey-Greene is Governor Slaton, polite, diligent but seemingly happy to go with the flow until his conscience gets the better of him. 

Adeline Hunter is convincing as 13-year old Mary Phagan, being innocent without being comically childish. Her character returns in flashbacks and Hunter gets some highlight moments in songs, in particular her duet with James Frampton as Frankie Epps, a besotted youth. 

Maverick Newman plays gnarly, tenacious journalist, Britt Craig, with a drunken-like swagger and attitude to match. More could probably have been made of his role and that of the media overall — the press in the real story went into a frenzy. 

Brown’s music is often a pastiche of classic Broadway, cultural references and recognisable early American melodies that call to mind John Philip Sousa and Stephen Foster. There’s plenty of military drum, too. 

The parade in the title refers to the Confederate Memorial Day parade, which was taking place on the night before Mary Phagan died, and which is a recurring event in the show. 

Until May 25

Everest Theatre, Seymour Centre, Cnr City Rd and Cleveland St, Chippendale

www.seymourcentre.com/