Young Cast Superb in Musical Parade

By Harry Currie

Record Staff

The musical Parade is a stunning, breathtaking piece of theatre, and the production by The Singer's Theatre which concluded with a final performance yesterday at the King Street Theatre Centre was ingenuously stylized, visually stirring, dramatically intense, musically brilliant and devastatingly tragic.

In fact, Parade is more than a musical, for it borders on opera in storyline and in musical quality, as well as the use of sung material carrying the plot with only occasional spoken dialogue.

Based on racial prejudice in Atlanta, Ga., in the 1913 rape and murder case of 13-year-old Mary Phagan, the irony is that it wasn't a black who was falsely accused, tried, sentenced to death (though this was commuted to life by the state governor), then lynched by a mob which included high-ranking city and state officials - the victim, Leo Frank, was a Jew.

Watching and listening as this cast of some 50 young people portrayed the characters involved in this travesty of justice was a mesmerizing experience. They captured all of the nuances of this horrible story, brought it to life, and riveted the audience with their singing and acting.

There was so much going on here symbolically that it would easily stand one or two more viewings to capture all of the fine details woven into the portrayal by director Gord Davis, who worked closely with musical director Amanda Brunk to weave the music and drama together to form this seamless experience.

The presence of the child-victim, Mary Phagan, throughout the performance, most of the time in a death mask, symbolized her spirit in attendance throughout the proceedings. The red streamer which covered her body after the murder was ever present, ending up on Frank after his lynching - one atrocity forever connected to the other.

The eye masks on the citizens - their refusal to see the truth and to discern the lies which witnesses were coached into by the prosecutor and their inborn prejudice against both Jew and black - the perfectly stylized movement and groupings - it's hard to believe that all of this was accomplished in just 10 days of intensive rehearsals.

The singing was of very high standard, both as an ensemble and in solo. The choral sound in full harmony was exhilarating. Alex Naylor and Miriam Clouthier were very convincing as Leo Frank and Lucille, his wife.

While the whole ensemble cast was outstanding, Jordan Stumpf did a fine job as Newt in the solo I'm Trying To Remember, as was Jean-Phillipe Fortier-Lazure's work as reporter Britt Craig.

The principal witness against Frank was janitor Jim Conley, here well-played by Danny Pagett, and though his testimony was full of inaccuracies and contradictions, the jury believed him. Later investigation and an admission by a then 13-year-old office boy given 70 years after the fact that he had seen Conley dragging Mary Phagan's body leave little doubt that Conley himself was the real killer.