Theater Review—

A Surprising Subject For A Musical,

‘Parade’ Is Given A Masterful Treatment By Dempster & Her Cast

By Julie Stern

RIDGEFIELD — When I saw in the schedule that the spring production of Ridgefield’s Theater Barn was going to be Parade, a musical about the 1915 lynching in Marietta Georgia, of Leo Frank, a New York Jew falsely accused of the rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl, I had my doubts.

The good news is: There was no need.

Ridgefield has assembled what might be the biggest collection of talent I have seen on any stage in the area, and under the deft direction of Alicia Dempster, they have produced something remarkable. 

When you think about it, musicals aren’t just light-hearted spoofs like Anything Goes or How to Succeed in Business. No, from West Side Story to Cabaret and Man of La Mancha, the really great musicals have investigated the dark side of human experience. Parade, which was conceived and directed on Broadway by Harold Prince, with music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, is different from these in that like the music of Stephen Sondheim, it is less melodic and more operatic in form.  You won’t leave the theater humming tunes, and you won’t hear them years later over a supermarket sound system, but you will be blown away by the beauty and power of the voices.

Parade is the third and last of Alfred Uhry’s “Atlanta plays,” a trilogy that began with Driving Miss Daisy and continued with The Last Night of Ballyhoo. Set in reverse historical order they deal with the lives of Jewish families in Georgia, and the dualism of identity that exists for people who feel both deeply rooted as southerners and also as Jews.

Leo Frank was a Cornell educated mechanical engineer raised in Brooklyn. He moved to Atlanta on the invitation of an uncle, who offered him a job as superintendent of a pencil factory. At a local synagogue he met and married Lucille, whose family had lived in Atlanta for generations, and considered herself very much a southerner.

In April 1913, 13-year old factory worker Mary Phagan was murdered, her body found in the factory basement by the night watchman Leo Conley. Frank was the last person to see the girl alive, when she went to his office to collect her weekly pay.

At first the night watchman was arrested, but according to the play, the governor felt it would deflect public anger over child labor issues if an important white person were arrested and hanged for the crime. It would be better for his reelection chances, and those of the state’s attorney, if they found an industrialist to prosecute.

All this is part of American history: Leo Frank was arrested and tried, in an atmosphere stirred to a frenzy by the jingoistic journalism of newspaper publisher Tom Watson. Although he was sentenced to death, Governor John Slaton began to have reservations about Frank’s guilt. A few days before he was due to leave office (he was not re-elected), Slaton commuted Frank’s sentence to life in prison, and had him transferred to the State Penitentiary at Milledgeville.

Two months later, a so-called mob of prominent citizens, including Watson, bankers and judges, took Frank from the prison and hanged him, near the site of Mary Phagan’s home.

Since you know what is going to happen, the point of the play lies in the portrayal of characters, the picture 1915 Georgia, and the incredible performances of the singers and actors. That is what kept the audience attention riveted for over two hours.

As Leo Frank, John Congdon creates the portrait of an educated outsider, who alternates between nervous concern over finances, and contemptuous scorn at an environment he views as backward, ignorant and living in the past. He comes across as cold and stiff, making it difficult to generate any public sympathy.

Yet as his wife, in a powerful performance by Priscilla Squiers, works tirelessly in his behalf, you see him change and grow, in the way that someone with a devastating illness can learn to transcend his situation and become more human. The chemistry between them is the product of marvelous acting skills in addition to their singing ability.

Richard Damaso and Jerrial Young, two of the most talented performers in the area, rise to new heights here. Damaso is Britt Craig, a drunken, wise-cracking crime reporter working for Watson, and Young is both the janitor, Newt Lee, as well as the night watchman Jim Conley, who is historically considered to be the real murderer.

Joe Harding, a longtime veteran of local stages, is a creditable villain as the prosecutor, Hugh Dorsey, while 18-year-old college student Stephen Humes shows both a wonderful singing voice and terrific acting skills as a young confederate soldier, and later, Mary Phagan’s friend Frankie Epps.

Wayne Leiss, Stephen Ross and Alexis M. Vournazos make use of judicious costume and make-up changes to take on a multitude of important roles, while Dr Barbara Kessler and Mary Shuldman add their rich voices to the production. Caitlin Witty as Mary Phagan, along with Morgan Veilleux, Brooke Morris, Lindsay Cronin and Jessica Braun are all school girls in real life, but like the rest of the cast, they perform flawlessly.

This is a serious play about bigotry and mob hatred and shameless exploitation, but it is also a moving piece of entertainment.

It’s not for very young children (there is a graphic lynching scene), but it is certainly educational, and raises questions that in these days of Representative Peter King’s Congressional hearings on “the Muslim threat” deserve to be explored together by thinking families. Apart from that, it is a treat for music lovers of all stripes.

(Performances continue weekends until April 2, including matinees this Sunday and next, March 20 and 27. See the Enjoy Calendar page for complete curtain and ticket details or call 203-431-9850.)­