[Note: actual show reviews will resume next week.]
Rape, antisemitism, and lynching converge in Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry’s Tony-winning musical tragedy Parade, based on the real-life case of pencil factory manager Leo Frank. Tried and found guilty for raping and murdering Mary Phagan, a thirteen-year old employee, Frank was pulled from jail and lynched, the only known lynching of a Jew in the American south. (The titular parade refers to the fact that the show opens on the day Phagan’s body was found, the Saturday of a big Confederate Memorial Day parade.) Other characters in the musical include Frank’s increasingly devoted wife* and the governor of Georgia.
*Odd piece of trivia: Mrs. Frank later became friends with writer Uhry’s grandmother, the same elderly Jewish lady on whom he based the title character in his screenplay for Driving Miss Daisy.
