PARADE 10/10 Review- LONG
PARADE 10/10 Review- LONG
#1PARADE 10/10 Review- LONG
Posted: 10/11/09 at 3:32pm
According to our history books and IBDB, Parade opened in December of 1998 at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre. In my eyes, however, Parade opened in October of 2009 at the Mark Taper Forum. Or, if we're going to look all the way back to the production's origins, Parade opened in September of 2007.
This production of Parade is so clear, so human, and so beautiful that it reopens ones eyes to this once troubled musical and allows us to see the show that it was always trying to be. Before, Parade was less about the story and more about a message Hal Prince was intent on beating over the head of his audience, making the musical difficult to love, and sometimes difficult to follow. In addition, Prince's production was overblown and overbearing, with a massive tree covering the stage for the entire show, constantly reminding the audience of the horrors to come. It was too much, and audiences withdrew. What we remember from it, though, is an excellent score superbly preserved in a cast recording. But that's all the Parade seemed to be for audiences and musical theatre aficionados: a great cast recording and a mediocre musical. Until now, that is.
With some trimming of dialogue and songs, as well as two new songs by Jason Robert Brown, Parade has grown from an idea and a message with a score into an actual musical. An actual GOOD musical. That's a major accomplishment in its own right, but the other accomplishment is how Rob Ashford is able to bring that musical to breathtaking life with an excellent cast of 15, a smart design team, and real talent and vision.
For those that don't know, Parade is the musical about the prosecution of Leo Frank (TR Knight), a Jewish pencil factory manager from Brooklyn, for the rape and murder of Mary Phagan (Rose Sezniak), a young girl who worked at the factory leo managed. Leo and his wife, Lucille (Lara Pulver), try to fight Leo's verdict from an unfair trial, strengthening their weak marriage. But it proves to be too late as *SPOILER IF YOU DON'T KNOW HISTORY* Leo meets his unfortunate demise at the hands of a gang of Georgian citizens, who hang Leo on a tree as a way of retribution for Mary's death and the revocation of Leo's death sentence.*END SPOILER, LEARN YOUR HISTORY* It's a dark, dark musical, but also incredibly beautiful.
From the start, this production gets your heart pumping the moment the opening (the "Old Red Hills of Home") begins, sung well enough by Curt Hansen, looking like the poster boy for Southern pride in his Confederate soldier's uniform. His beloved Lila (also Ms. Sezniak), stands with him as he sings his love for her and his state as he proudly goes off to war. Ashford has the action take place in the center of the stage, dimly lit, as the older version of Hansen's soldier (Davis Gaines) looks on in a single, dim spotlight. it's a subtle, quietly beautiful moment, and this production is full of them, two personal favorites being Charlotte D'amboise as Mrs. Phagan, mother of the doomed Mary, nervously wandering across the stage, looking for her daughter who hasn't come home yet, and the small, dim spotlight on a tiny, hand held cross placed on the wall during Frank's trial.
Ashford keeps the production moving at a relatively brisk pace with the help of Christopher Oram's sparse set and Neil Austin's cinematic lighting. A location can be established with so much as the placement of a chair and a box of light covering a small section of the stage. It's simple, but effective. The rest of the set consists of a platform with the tattered tapestry on the wall of a Confederate meeting, showing Georgia in its prime. Austin's lighting emphasizes certain aspects of the tapestry at different moments of the piece, such as the face of a young girl as Hugh Dorsey (Christian Hoff, convincingly sly), in his prosecution, speaks of Mary Phagan as "the angel girl", or of the small Confederate flag as Dorsey and Judge Roan (also Gaines) sing "The Glory" as they fish.
They all help get the point across that this is bigger than Mary Phagan and Leo Frank: it's a way to restore honor in the south that has been gone since the Civil War. The last stroke that Ashford does to get this point across is to have Lila, of the opening number, appear above the action at certain moments of the production, usually when chaos is taking over below. To me, this works beautifully as Ashford doesn't indulge himself with this decision, and only has Lila appear a total of three (maybe four times) the entire production, the most effective being when *SPOILER* Leo is hung*SPOILER*, Lila slowly walks out, a stream of indigo blue light behind her and a look of horror on her face from the madness that has ensued in her honor, takes out her parasol, and walks off the stage for the last time. Some may express annoyance with this, but you won't find it from me.
The ensemble cast is uniformly excellent, all giving heartfelt performances, though none tilting the balance and trying to give a star turn. Every actor (except for Knight, Pulver and Hoff) are cast as multiple characters. This doesn't really prove to be a problem, as each actor has such a distinct personality for every character. Ashford has also distributed the parts smartly, so it doesn't prove to be nearly as confusing as what might be expected.
This may not be the best sung production of Parade, however, as some cast members' singing voices are significantly stronger than others (Hansen, Sezniak, Phoebe Strole, Lisa Livesay, Deidrie Henry, and David St. Louis having the strongest). This is most evident during Knight's solo songs, as almost none truly soar melodically as they should (with the exception of "It's Hard to Speak My Heart" and "All the Wasted Time"), which is a shame as it is really the only semi-weakness of his performance.
Knight isn't so much a bad singer, or even a mediocre one, so much as of an unsure one. He rarely holds out notes for very long, for possible fear of losing breath or going flat, and sometimes his voice loses some luster that could really help some of his songs register better. That said, Knight and Ashford work it well into his interpretation of Frank, emphasizing his nervous, nerdy persona that can come across as off-putting. In fact, the biggest accomplishment Ashford and Knight make together is they instill a small sense of doubt in Leo in the first act. You're almost sure he is innocent, and yet at certain times, his demeanor during the trial and even during "Come Up to My Office" (not played as the typical over-the-top monster, but of Leo nervously making advances towards the girls, making it all the creepier) has you second guessing yourself sometimes.
This wouldn't be possible if it weren't for Ms. Pulver, either, who is giving a truly wonderful performance as Lucille. She creates a realistic character that the audience can relate to and root for, and she happens to have a beautiful singing voice and strong musicality (it's no coincidence that Knight is at his best vocally when with Pulver). Together, she and Knight have wonderful chemistry.
The true star of this production, however, is Rob Ashford, who shows what can be done in a small scale production (taking notes, Roundabout?). Ashford establishes himself now as not only a highly capable and talented director, but washes away his previous reputation of only being able to choreograph kick lines and energetic acrobatics. His choreography here is simple, but totally appropriate, and makes total use of both the space and of the small number of actors. The only weakness other in the production, in addition to a couple of weak voices, is Ashford's choreography for "Pretty Music." For the most part, Ashford keeps it simple, but can't seem to resist the temptation of giving Michael Berresse, as the Governor Slaton, and Charlotte D'amboise a moment to show off their dance training. The problem is that it is exactly that: showing off.
This is a small annoyance for what is uniformly a beautiful production. Should their be talk of a transfer, I would welcome it entirely. The only problem is finding a suitable theatre. I suggest the Circle in the Sqaure, as it has the most intimacy of any Broadway house. But I'm sure Ashford would be able to make this production work in other theaters, as well. For now, though, we should be grateful that this production is playing in the US in general. Now, finally, Parade works as a musical. And what a beautiful musical it is.
9.5/10
"Sing the words, Patti!!!!" Stephen Sondheim to Patti LuPone.
Updated On: 10/11/09 at 03:32 PM
#2re: PARADE 10/10 Review- LONG
Posted: 10/11/09 at 6:28pm
Did you see the original production? Not to be a twit, but I'm not sure your opening paragraphs are really warranted if you didn't....
#2re: PARADE 10/10 Review- LONG
Posted: 10/11/09 at 6:53pmI did.
"Sing the words, Patti!!!!" Stephen Sondheim to Patti LuPone.
#3re: PARADE 10/10 Review- LONG
Posted: 10/11/09 at 7:12pm
Okay, the way you write makes it sound a little like you are quoting from the reviews. For me, this production had a lot of the same flaws as the Prince version, mainly this sort of detached stoic look at society, when in effect, I think that is the heart of what makes the story real, and ultimately frightening.
I appreciated a lot of Ashford's staging, but I think its Hal Prince light and this production didn't do a lot to fix the problems that existed the first time around. And the addition of the new material and the "Lila" roaming around the stage didn't help things. The roaming remorseful ghost "Lila" was particularly absurd to me as its hard to imagine her sentiments wouldn't echo those of the people of Atlanta in 1918.
I also thought removing a lot of the humor in the supporting characters was a huge mistake (even SWEENEY TODD has comic relief).
If this must be the production to transfer to Broadway, as I imagine it probably will - and as you say at Circle in the Square, the only really viable house for it, I do hope Ashford will at least hire stronger singers than he has here (Charlotte D'Amboise and Michael Berresse to be blunt have no business being in PARADE and what's up with the factory girl's cat call voices?),
And I will actually disagree with you and say that whatever strengths Knight and Pulver have (and they do have many) their chemistry together is a big zero. I never once believed them as a couple and while their scene work was nice there was no variation from the beginning to the end in their relationship.
To me this isn't a case of "PARADE" finally *working* as a musical. Some of it works better than the original production, some of its less effective, but neither made much of a case for the heart that lies beneath these characters and a community torn by chaos.
I think the review thats most on the money is actually the one in the LA Weekly.
LA Weekly Review
Updated On: 10/11/09 at 07:12 PM
mastachen2
Chorus Member Joined: 11/1/07
#4re: PARADE 10/10 Review- LONG
Posted: 10/11/09 at 7:32pm
I thought it was Mary, instead of Lila that watched over the proceedings. To me, it would make more sense for Sezniak to be playing Mary when she appears.
I thought the first act dragged, mainly because the tempo to the songs were a lot slower than what I'm used to hearing from the two cast recordings. Other than that, the production was great, but Christian Hoff as Hugh Dorsey tended to overact a little and I found it a little too hard to sympathize with TR Knight's Leo.
Standouts were Lara Pulver, Davis Gaines, and Phoebe Strole. Charlotte D'Amboise as Mary's mother was very heartbreaking but was kind of relegated to the sidelines as the governor's wife. Michael Berresse (sp?) was great as Slaton/Craig.
#5re: PARADE 10/10 Review- LONG
Posted: 10/11/09 at 10:00pmRandom question, but does anyone know if the painting used in the set design is an actual famous painting that I'm unaware of or was it created for the show?
#6re: PARADE 10/10 Review- LONG
Posted: 10/11/09 at 10:33pmIt was created for the production. The video on youtube about the making of the Donmar production explains it. Its a collage of images pulled from Civil War period ephemera
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