Howdy! Shalom!
A review of the musical, Parade, starring Ben Platt.
No, this isn’t another Jewish cowboy post. Today, I’m taking you down south to Atlanta!
I saw the latest Jewish musical to grace the stages of Broadway, a revival of the 1998 musical, Parade. All I knew about it going into the theater was that it was about the true lynching of a Jewish man played by Ben Platt and its opening night was protested by neo-Nazis, who shouted that the main character, Leo Frank (played by Platt) a pedo.
They incorrectly called Frank this because in 1913 the Brooklyn Jew who moved to Georgia was falsely convicted of raping and murdering a young girl who worked at his pencil factory. The musical tells Leo Frank’s harrowing story and how it was perceived in his Atlanta community - his Jewish wife (played by Micaela Diamond) who stands by him against proud antisemites who support the Confederacy and want him hanged.
“Antisemitism is the type of conversation that seems to spend most of the time in the shadows…I’m hoping this will fight against that recession of the conversation and keep it moving forward. I hope Parade puts emotions and names and faces to this conversation, so it’s not this larger-than-life, political thing that you can feel really removed from.”
- Ben Platt (no, I didn’t interview him, this was in Playbill. But can you imagine?!)
Aside from the incredible acting and singing, the staging was the best part - throughout the show, a large wooden platform that took up most of the stage was used as various settings: a park on which to have a picnic, a court floor on which to have a trial, a jail cell in which Platt actually stays in throughout the 15-minute intermission. The front part of the Plattform (ha) was also used as a projection background to display details such as years and notes from the trial. The stage background also displayed projected images of the real people.
Parade makes for a weird musical. Let’s just say I was not rushing to listen to the soundtrack after. But if it wasn’t a musical, it would just be a trial on stage. The fact that it was a musical gave it an almost sour tone, with songs like “The Old Red Hills of Home” and “The Dream of Atlanta,” which articulated the dangers of antisemitism and blindly following politics and countrymen to the point of unquestioning loyalty without saying so.
Gd bless the sight,
Of the old hills of Georgia,
The old red hills of home
(Kneel down to)
Praise those who'd fight,
For the old hills of Georgia.
Never has a musical made me think so much after seeing it. I pondered why it was called Parade, how accurately it depicted the real story, and where the case stands today.
Upon my research, I learned it was in the aftermath of the Leo Frank trial that the Anti-Defamation League was formed “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people, and to secure justice and fair treatment to all.”
“I think [playing Frank in Parade] allowed me to embrace whatever Judaism means to me. Sometimes we feel if we’re not observant or we don’t keep kosher, or we haven’t been to shul in a while that makes us disconnected from Judaism or not a good Jew… But for me, it’s come to be proud of the cultural and emotional and familial ways that I feel Jewish and embrace that.”
So true, Ben! I highly recommend seeing Parade before it closes in August.
Welcome to a new section, where I occasionally give updates on my Jewish journey!
Passover was a great one this year - first Seder was the most meaningful one I’ve ever had or been to, and I spent second Seder (my first time at a second Seder!) with a hospitable colleague and his lovely family.
While it was not the first year I “kept Passover” (ie not eating chametz, or any food with leavening agents to remind us of the Exodus), I had a moment of growth. I was on a tour of Jewish Harlem (more on that in a future post), and the tour ended with a taste of some of the best ruggelach in NYC baked by a Harlemite from the south who has been making them for decades in his little shop.
Throughout the tour, I was debating if I would break Passover to try one. I knew it went against Passover, but I was justifying it by connecting it to a Jewish experience. Just before we entered the shop though, a family on the tour said, “We’re not going to try one; it’s Passover!” And the decision became an easy one, because I knew I was not alone.
Practicing Judaism is practicing commitment to something you believe in, a muscle I don’t flex often! And I don’t practice or follow every single rule. But I believe traditions like keeping Passover are what keep our people afloat. To feel that connectivity and bond over something we’ve been doing for thousands of years is powerful, and I chose to prioritize that on that day. Plus, nothing can beat Breads’ ruggelach in the city. :) Good Shabbos - I hope it’s a carb-filled one.
Interesting! I love the musical Parade, and my father's family was living in Atlanta at the time Leo Frank was hanged. I'm actually working on a book based on my family's experience during the trial...It's especially important to me because I wanted to show the complexities of the region-- being a southern Jew is very different than being a Jew in the Northeast--while we were much more of a minority in the south than in places like New York, that almost helped us "fit in", so events like the Leo Frank trial were especially striking for a community that felt quite integrated into the city. I've really wanted to see the new rendition of the show, but I much prefer the music from the original cast.
I am delighted that you got to see that play...I find that all i thought i knew from school about american history skipped or left out all the things that were not so nice. this of course was one of them.