Parade

Atlanta Trilogy

by Alfred Uhry

Amid religious intolerance, political injustice and racial tension, the stirring Tony Award-winning Parade explores the endurance of love and hope against all the odds. With a book by acclaimed playwright Alfred Uhry (Driving Miss Daisy) and a rousing, colorful and haunting score by Jason Robert Brown (Songs For a New World, The Last Five Years, Bridges of Madison County), Parade is a moving examination of the darkest corners of America's history.

In 1913, Leo Frank, a Brooklyn-raised Jew living in Georgia, is put on trial for the murder of thirteen-year-old Mary Phagan, a factory worker under his employ. Already guilty in the eyes of everyone around him, a sensationalist publisher and a janitor's false testimony seal Leo's fate. His only defenders are a governor with a conscience and, eventually, his assimilated Southern wife who finds the strength and love to become his greatest champion.

Genres: Plays

Paperback

Published January 1, 1998

About the author

Alfred Uhry was born in Atlanta, Georgia. His book for the musical version of Eudora Welty's The Robber Bridegroom was Tony nominated in 1976. Driving Miss Daisy won the Pulitzer Prize, and The Last Night of Ballyhoo and his book for the musical Parade won Tony Awards. In 2006 his play Without Walls, starring Laurence Fishburne, opened in Los Angeles, and Edgardo Mine opened at the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis. He has also written the book for Lovemusik, which opened on Broadway in May 2007. Screenplays include Mystic Pizza, Rich in Love, and I'll Take Virginia.

Reviews

[JB · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oversimplification of a true story rife with stereotypes and lacking nuance about racism and it’s history in the states (Eg this event marked the descent of the KKK and the creation of the ADL, racism still exists, etc).

Some funny lines and good to see a Jewish protagonist.