12/16/2015Theater: This Parade's Gone By With Jeremy Jordan | Evernote Web https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=20c4a641-a83d-4b38-b000-3380c3897d7a&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&1/3Theater: This Parade's Gone By With Jeremy JordanTheater: This Parade's Gone By With Jeremy JordanPARADE IN CONCERT ** 1/2 out of **** LINCOLN CENTERIt's been a rough few months -- at least commercially -- for composer Jason Robert Brown and actor JeremyJordan.</p><p> Other projects have not fared as well as they surely hoped.</p><p> So it must have been sweet release to focustheir energies on this: a one-night concert production of Brown's Tony-winning musical Parade.</p><p> It was a spared-no-expenses evening with a super-sized New York City Chamber Orchestra and a chorus of more than 200people backing a dream team of Broadway stars and rising talent.</p><p> It would be financially impossible to mountanything like this in a commercial house and the enthusiastic, eager crowd ate it up.After an all-too-brief Broadway run, Parade has grown in stature for theater folk, much like Stephen Sondheim'sshows often seemed to become hits long after they closed.</p><p> This complex, sprawling tale of a New York Jewwrongly hanged in Georgia for killing a 13 year old white girl is of course based on a true story that became acause celebre from 1913 to his death in 1915.</p><p> Even Thomas Edison and Henry Ford (no friend to Jews)denounced the trial of Leo Frank as a miscarriage of justice.</p><p> If it's easy to say the story of racial prejudice in theSouth that ended with a lynching doesn't sound like a recipe for success, well neither does Sweeney Todd orChicago.But where those shows have a wicked sense of humor, Parade is deadly serious.</p><p> Unquestionably, a concertproduction is not the best way to absorb this daunting work for newcomers like myself. (Most of the audiencewere clearly fans, applauding performers and songs right from the start.) In a concert production like this, theactors must create very nuanced portrayals on the fly and some of the book is invariably lost in the shuffle. (Thebook is by Tony winner Alfred Uhry.) For example, it took me a while to figure out exactly what character if anythe wonderful Ramin Karimloo was playing when he began to pop up as a Greek chorus of sorts.Our hero Leo Frank (Jordan) is a stiff, buttoned-up man with a starchy relationship to his sweet wife (the lovelyLaura Benanti).</p><p> He's quite unlikable and toss in the fact that he's a New York Jew incapable or unwilling of fittingin and you can see how he'd become a perfect target for local authorities.</p><p> The show begins with an overview ofthe south, Frank's disbelieving arrest for the crime of murder and a frenzied rush to damn him from people eitherjust excited to be in on something big or bullied into it by the authorities.</p><p> A trial, his wife's conscience-prickingconfrontation with the governor of Georgia and more all take place alongside songs that range from operatic tocomic.</p><p> It has enough powerful moments to make you understand why Brown was heralded from the start.</p><p> Theenviable cast assembled for this night gave it their all.But the full complexity of the story was overwhelmed on this night.</p><p> Jordan and Bernanti couldn't really developthe subtle transformation their characters undergo and had to settle for emotional sparks and some broadbrushstroke work.</p><p> Since that's the emotional heart of the show, it left Parade a little stunted, through no fault oftheir own.Worse was the technical presentation.</p><p> Beowulf Boritt and Caite Hevner Kemp are credited with projectiondesign.</p><p> A concert performance can of course only modestly suggest setting and scene changes.</p><p> Unfortunately,they chose to have the Georgia state flag prominently displayed with black and white photos overlaid on top ofthat image.</p><p> It created a muddy, ugly and distracting effect, a minor but prominent issue.</p><p> More tragic was the12/16/2015Theater: This Parade's Gone By With Jeremy Jordan | Evernote Web https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=20c4a641-a83d-4b38-b000-3380c3897d7a&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&2/3audio.</p><p> Jon Weston is the sound designer but the evening was plagued with repeated audio issues that seemedsome combination of actors perhaps unused to actual mikes (as opposed to body mikes) and -- one assumes --whoever was running the sound board missing their cues.</p><p> Again and again, the crucial dialogue moving thestory forward was lost because a mike hadn't been turned up in time for the actor's words to be heard.</p><p> Thesame happened at the start of songs throughout.One can only imagine how difficult it is to put on such a technically challenging show as this for one night onlywith limited rehearsal.</p><p> But if the audio keeps dropping out, how the heck can we follow the story or relax andenjoy the music? In fact, a crucial moment -- the final words between Leo Frank and the soon-to-be-murderedgirl Mary Phagan -- were muffled the first time around.</p><p> I've no idea if it was a mistake or purposefully ambiguoussince the same moment is replayed at the finale.</p><p> Was it intended to be unknown and "revealed" at the end, as ifwe ever doubted Frank's guilt? Was it just a technical snafu? So many other moments were in fact snafus that Iremained in doubt.</p><p> A show this intellectually ambitious shouldn't have such barriers in the way of appreciatingwhat they were doing.</p><p> Standards were not met here.And now the good news: the evening was still thoroughly enjoyable and featured enough great moments fromBroadway veterans that Brown, his exhausted orchestra and the cast could indeed take their bows withpleasure.</p><p> Certainly the audience roared its approval repeatedly, often deservedly so.</p><p> Sometimes I felt the overlyorchestrated, challenging numbers got in their own way.</p><p> Time and again, the simpler and more direct momentssucceeded better than the obviously ornate ones.</p><p> But when given the chance, the actors delivered.Charlie Franklin practically stole the show at the start with a terrific one-two punch: he gave a soaringperformance of the opening number "The Old Red Hills Of Home" as a soldier returning from the Civil War andsoon contrasted it nicely as a kid flirting with Mary Phagan in "The Picture Show." Later he simmered over asthat same kid boiling with hate for Frank, making this evening a nice calling card for his talent.Karimloo crooned nicely (as a hateful character) but had very little to do dramatically until late in the show.</p><p> HisLes Miserables co-star Andy Mientus in contrast had charm and chops to spare with a much more substantialrole as a reporter in which to show it off. (Catch them both if you can in that very good revival.) Like some otherelaborate numbers, "Real Big News" became a little muddled musically here but Mientus anchored it nicely.Dramatically, the women fared best with Rachel De Benedet somehow creating a whole character as the wife ofthe governor in just a few brief lines.</p><p> Benanti gave heft to the scenes between Lucille and her frustratingly coldhusband Leo.</p><p> The movie's heartbeat began with her performance.</p><p> Jordan of course has magnetism to spareand a compelling voice.</p><p> Given a little time, the very tricky dance an actor playing Leo must navigate wouldbecome more organic.</p><p> Happily, his natural charisma allowed Jordan to make Leo perfectly uptight, knowingwe'd go along with him for the ride.</p><p> His solo moment at the trial ("It's hard to speak my heart") and the duet withBenanti at the penultimate moment were strong.</p><p> Clearly, with time, their characterizations would become richer.If Franklin seemed to steal the show at the start, by the end it was clearly in the hands of Joshua Henry, playingthe once and future convict Jim Conley.</p><p> As he has so often before, Henry electrified the audience, this time withAct One's "That's What He Said" and Act Two's bitter and beautiful "Feel The Rain Fall."If a work can give stars like Henry and Jordan and Benanti multiple chances to shine, rising talent like Mientus agreat platform and a newcomer like Franklin a genuine boost, you know it's worth careful consideration and aloving presentation.</p><p> I've no idea if a stripped-down version is more artistically satisfying or whether thiseverything-you-want presentation captures best the spirit of what Brown and his collaborators were going for allalong.</p><p> But it's a shame this Parade has passed by so quickly.</p><p> At least with a few more nights, the technicalglitches could be ironed out and more people would have a chance to catch a challenging show that flew by alltoo fast the first time around and has done so again.THEATER OF 2015
