‘Parade’ is a Timely Drama at The Fox

“Parade,” the musical drama that had a successful rebirth on Broadway two years ago, triumphantly returned to the city that inspired it for a week of performances at The Fox Theatre April 1.

The show chronicles the Atlanta murder trial in 1913 of Leo Frank, a young Jewish business leader played by Max Chernin and his lynching two years later by a vengeful mob in Marietta.

There are few dull moments in the two-and-a-half-hour staging, which attempts to bring into focus the personal drama of Frank and his wife, Lucille, played by Talia Suskauer, against the sprawling backdrop of a city beset by social and political change.

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Much of the action of his month-long trial in the sweltering summer of 1913 and the events that follow take place on a rectangular platform set at center stage. The critical dates of the drama flash on the surface of what amounts to a stage within the stage where a crude form of Southern justice unfolds before the astonished eyes of Frank and his wife.

Both were just 29 and had only been married for three years when Frank was arrested for the murder of Mary Phagan, a 13-year-old worker in the Atlanta factory of the National Pencil Company. Frank was the factory’s superintendent, a New York Jew who, after his graduation from Cornell University, had been lured South by an uncle who was a major investor in the facility.

Talia Suskauer and Max Chernin star as Lucille and Leo Frank in “Parade.”

Many Jews had prospered in Atlanta. Some had become major employers, and they were important participants in the young city’s success. But with his arrest, Frank comes to the realization that all that Jews had accomplished could not save him. That hot Atlanta summer of 1913 was to prove a devilish trap for the young Frank, who was sentenced to die for the young girl’s death.

As her husband remains incarcerated and largely ineffective in defending himself, it falls to his young wife to act to save her husband’s life. As she personally confronts the powerful political figures of the time, she is as much the protagonist in this drama as her accused husband.

For Suskauer, who portrays Frank’s young wife, the role has been deeply inspiring.

“I think that we can all take a note and take learn something from Lucille’s incredible strength and bravery during this time,” Suskauer said. “I hope women especially can look, when they’re feeling powerless, to Lucille’s story and journey and say, you know, actually, I think my voice can make a difference.”

The second half of “Parade” follows Lucille as she confronts Georgia’s governor at the time, John Slaton, and provokes him to reexamine the antisemitism and injustice that was largely responsible for her husband’s conviction.

“Parade” tells the story of the trial of Leo Frank in 1913 and his lynching two years later.

“Parade” inhabits a world of legal maneuvering and courtroom theatrics with which Suskauer is well acquainted. Both of her Jewish parents practiced criminal law together before her father, Scott, became a Florida State Court Judge in West Palm Beach. Her mother Michelle, in 2018, became the first public defender to be elected president of the State Bar of Florida.

Suskauer taps into her personal experience as she sings with Leo the dramatic lyrics that defiantly unite them, “This Is Not Over Yet.” As they sing of the hope they have for Leo’s survival, she believes they both find a better future and each other in the midst of the darkness that surrounds them.

“Throughout our performance and our show, Lucille gains her strength and her power and her voice and actually finds Leo as well.” Suskauer says. “So, Leo and Lucille find each other in this really beautiful way, despite this horrific thing that is happening all around them.”

The words that Jason Brown, the composer and lyricist, penned for this prophetic song, have proven to be true. The story of Leo and Lucille Frank still fascinates us more than 110 years after the fact as a cautionary tale of how injustice and virulent antisemitism, egged on by powerful political forces and individuals, can turn to tragedy.

The Jews of Atlanta, like Lucille and Leo’s families, felt secure in their prosperity and equated their commercial success to a kind of acceptance by their neighbors. But the events of that time proved just how illusory their beliefs were. More than any single message, this powerful staging of “Parade” drives that home.

“When Jason Brown and Alfred Uhry wrote this show back in the ’90s, they intended for it to be a piece of history,” Suskauer said. “But, unfortunately, it’s so popular and relevant today, because I think that people don’t have to reach very far to connect it to their lives. The show is ripe with antisemitism and racism.”