Since moving to the Broward Center 10 years ago, Slow Burn Theatre has been featuring more family-friendly mainstream fare, in contrast to the edgier, more offbeat menu that first earned the company its devoted following.
So it was heartening to see the troupe return to form with its current production of Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry’s Parade, as darkly dramatic and yet exhilarating as musicals get.
The show premiered on Broadway in 1998, where — typical of Slow Burn’s early choices — it only lasted a few months, despite winning Tony Awards for Brown’s stirring score and Uhry’s gritty, fact-based book. Since then, the show has been embraced by adventuresome companies around the country — like Slow Burn in 2014 – then a return to Broadway in the 2020 Tony-winning revival, And now Parade has come full circle, in a new, even darker production at Slow Burn, the first repeated selection in its 15 years of existence.
Parade is Uhry’s third Jewish-themed stage show set in Atlanta, after Driving Miss Daisy and The Last Night of Ballyhoo. It is the saga of Leo Frank, a Brooklyn Jew who relocates with his wife, Lucille, to Georgia, circa 1913, to run a pencil factory. But he finds himself mistrusted as an embodiment of The Other, a gefilte fish out of water. And when one of his employees, a 13-year-old girl named Mary Phagan, is found dead in the factory’s basement, Frank is quickly accused of her murder, tried, convicted and sentenced to death.
Making his Broadway debut, Brown demonstrated how to fashion a varied score, brimming with anthems (“The Old Red Hills of Home”), satirical comic relief (“A Rumblin’ and a Rollin’”), ironic duets of optimism (“This Is Not Over Yet”) and most especially an 11 o’clock love song between Leo and Lucille (“All the Wasted Time”). Taken together, these songs made a stirring introduction to the promise of Brown’s composing skills, on which he has more than delivered over the years since.
And at Slow Burn, director Patrick Fitzwater has the voices to do the score justice. Making his debut with the company is Justin Albinder as Leo Frank, an outsider uncomfortable in his own skin, who keeps the world, and particularly his wife, at arm’s length. Leo is not a very sympathetic character, but Albinder draws us to his side and forces us to care.
He is well-paired by Mikayla Cohen (veteran of Slow Burn’s Anastasia and Sister Act) as persistent Lucille, who brings Leo meals daily during his two years of incarceration, and who badgers the Georgia governor to commute Leo’s sentence from death to life. Unlike Leo, Lucille wears her heart on her sleeve, and the actress sings her heart out.
Albinder and Cohen carry much of the narrative, but there is strength throughout the nearly two dozen cast members. The townfolk of Atlanta are an important group character and Fitzwater keeps them in near-constant motion, surrounding Leo like a human noose. Among the supporting players that manage to stand out are Chaz Rose and Kareema Khouri as Black servants who rise above servitude, Michael Materdomini as the politically savvy governor and Michael Hunsaker as the dogged newspaper reporter.
Nikolas Serrano’s unit set is dominated by a stage-high tree, whose significance to the story — and to Leo’s ultimate fate — becomes gradually and starkly clear. The scenery is artfully lit, and often cast in ominous shadows, by Eric Norbury. Credit sound designer Dan Donato with the expert balance between the full-throated cast and Travis Smith’s pitch-perfect eight-piece orchestra.
Parade was not ahead of its time when it premiered 27 years ago, but the political landscape, the power of mob rule and the contemporary rise of anti-semitism make the show all the more timely today. Director Fitzwater and his talented company seize on this moment in time and deftly deliver a message through the vehicle of a mere musical.
PARADE, Broward Center’s Amaturo Theater, 201 SW 5th Ave., Fort Lauderdale. Through Sun., Feb. 23. $72.50-$77. Call 954-462-0222 or visit browardcenter.org.