{"id":41575,"date":"2025-05-31T13:28:59","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T20:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=41575"},"modified":"2025-05-31T22:16:53","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T05:16:53","slug":"parade-at-the-orpheum-the-musical-is-tough-stuff-but-touched-with-transcendence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/05\/31\/parade-at-the-orpheum-the-musical-is-tough-stuff-but-touched-with-transcendence\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Parade\u2019 at the Orpheum \u2013 The musical is tough stuff, but touched with transcendence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul>\n<li>by&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ebar.com\/search?author=1&amp;searchBox=Jim+Gladstone&amp;advancedSearch=1&amp;submit=search&amp;search_for=exact+phrase\">Jim Gladstone<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tuesday, May 27, 2025<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Share this Post:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ebar.com\/image\/stories\/1355\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Max Chernin (center) and the cast of the national touring company of \u2018Parade\u2019 (photo: Joan Marcus)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The red-white-and-blue bunting and brass band music feel familiar as \u201cParade\u201d begins with a Memorial Day gathering. But the banners on display suggest an ill wind blowing: They\u2019re Confederate flags.<br><br>At the Orpheum Theatre through June 8, the touring revival of this 1998 musical by Jason Robert Brown (music and lyrics) and Alfred Uhry (book) feels uncomfortably timely. In recent weeks, masked Proud Boys paraded briefly in Kansas City, white supremacists from abroad have been welcomed onto American soil, and Israeli embassy workers have been murdered in our nation\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the Atlanta of 1915, where \u201cParade\u201d is set, earnest tribute was still paid to southern soldiers lost in the Civil War, whites treated Blacks as lesser beings, and a Jewish factory owner was framed for the murder of a 13-year-old girl. The musical\u2019s plot also incorporates political backstabbing, unabashed jury rigging, and the bereft families of innocent victims. \u201cAnnie\u201d it ain\u2019t. Tomorrow it could be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ebar.com\/image\/stories\/1356\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Max Chernin (center) and the cast of the national touring company of \u2018Parade\u2019 (photo: Joan Marcus)&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sustaining counterpoint<\/strong><br>The real-life story of Leo Frank, who was not only convicted of a crime he didn\u2019t commit but later kidnapped from his jail cell and killed by a lynch mob, is unlikely source material for a Broadway musical. But if you open your mind and approach \u201cParade\u201d as if it\u2019s an opera, it works surprisingly well.<br><br>Bookended by renditions of the folksong-influenced \u201cThe Old Red Hills of Home,\u201d Brown\u2019s dense and often dark score is brightened by underpinnings of Americana; a gospel theme here, a country twang there, glimmering like hope through the thick of it all.<br><br>Juxtaposing coercion, injustice, and unfathomable sorrow with gorgeously orchestrated music, Brown and arranger Daniel Felsenfeld allow us to stare into the abyss while simultaneously lifting us above it. There\u2019s a sense of communion in the theater as the audience bears witness: \u201cParade\u201d breaks you, but also builds solidarity. At a time when we have much to pray for, this is art as church.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ebar.com\/image\/stories\/1357\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Talia Suskauer and Max Chernin in the national touring company of \u2018Parade\u2019 (photo: Joan Marcus)&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Precise performances<\/strong><br>There\u2019s a fine-grained believability to the characters of Leo (Max Chernin) and his wife, Lucille (Talia Suskauer) thanks the actors\u2019 performances and Uhry\u2019s writing. Rather than heroic figures, they\u2019re just like us, ordinary people caught in the flag-waving whirlwind of an extraordinarily intolerant society.<br><br>Familiar down to their flaws, we hear them condescend to each other, catch bits of bickering, and note facial expressions that slip toward contempt. Yet there\u2019s never a doubt that they\u2019re devoted to each other. The show also has a few delightful, startling sexy bits.<br><br>Both leads sing beautifully. Suskauer in a soprano that transcends her character\u2019s circumstance; Chernin in a rich, round, occasionally otherworldly bass. The supporting chorus is also top-notch and the secondary characters sharply etched. Griffin Binnicker gives a particularly strong performance as Tom Watson, a ruthlessly opportunistic conservative newspaper publisher. His character\u2019s conniving would have made my skin crawl even if the actor didn\u2019t bear a resemblance to J.D. Vance.<br><br><strong>\u2018Parade,\u2019 through June 8. $58-$261. Orpheum Theatre, 1192 Market St.<\/strong><br><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.broadwaysf.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>http:\/<\/strong>\/<strong>www.broadwaysf.com<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Share this Post: Max Chernin (center) and the cast of the national touring company of \u2018Parade\u2019 (photo: Joan Marcus) The red-white-and-blue bunting and brass band music feel familiar as \u201cParade\u201d begins with a Memorial Day gathering. But the banners on display suggest an ill wind blowing: They\u2019re Confederate flags. At&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/05\/31\/parade-at-the-orpheum-the-musical-is-tough-stuff-but-touched-with-transcendence\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41575"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41575"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41583,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41575\/revisions\/41583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}