Leo Frank - guilty or not?

[dfwtheatreguy]

Posted: 4/21/07 at 1:46am

Just saw PARADE here in Dallas - there's no clear cut answers.

Was Leo guilty? I dont think so, but did Conley really do it?

[shesamarshmallow]

Posted: 4/21/07 at 1:52am

Um, it's pretty clear cut in the musical that he didn't (and I seem to remember it coming under fire for that). Real life is more fuzzy.

[dfwtheatreguy]

Posted: 4/21/07 at 1:56am

in the show it's clear from his point of view he's innocent - but they present evidence both ways and we never see the murder so it was kinda fuzzy.

[Attendthetale331]

Posted: 4/21/07 at 2:01am

He is not guilty. Conley did do it. A boy confessed to witnessing the murder but did not come forward until the 1950's when he was dying.

[B3TA07]

Posted: 4/21/07 at 2:37am

Oh my God! I forgot WaterTower was doing this! I have to find the money to see this and lotto Wicked ASAP!

*Fangirl scream runaway*

[Jazzysuite82]

Posted: 4/21/07 at 2:40am

No it's clear that Leo is innocent. I mean they make him sympathetic and clearly show lying witnesses (Connelly). I think based on the actions of the other characters it's clear.

[mallardo]

Posted: 4/21/07 at 3:23am

In real life as well as in Parade - he was an innocent man.

[MTVMANN]

Posted: 4/21/07 at 3:24am

I saw Watertower Production on their first Saturday! I enjoyed it!

From the perspective that the writers of Parade were going, Leo is innocent, but that's only going from what they presented in the play.

That being said, I do believe that he was innocent.

[allvocal]

Posted: 4/21/07 at 3:26am

I think Frankie did it...

[tazber]

Posted: 4/21/07 at 8:36am

Attendthetale is correct. In real life, there was a confession from a witness later on. Leo Frank was not guilty.

On a side note, the play has a very direct stance that Leo was innocent. If this version made it unclear I think they may have made some unauthorized changes.

[folkyboy]

Posted: 4/21/07 at 10:50am

yay this is making me excited for Boston's production of Parade!

[Gingersnap2]

Posted: 4/21/07 at 10:54am

Crime Library has a good entry on the case of Leo Frank and Mary Phagan:

http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/not_guilty/frank/1.html

[Piercemn]

Posted: 4/21/07 at 10:59am

If you look up the records you will find that Leo Frank was innocent, but because the public wanted a fast end to this murder, was found guilty and hanged. The murder is a true story. There's also a TV movie version of this with Walter Matthau that was made several years ago.

I don't like the musical because you never learn anything about Mary Phagen. She is dead 15 minutes after the show has started and Leo Frank was on trial shortly after.
There's turmoil in the Frank's marriage, but you never know what drew the man and his wife together, and there's a disagreeable song at the end of the first act which Frank sings that makes him seem guilty.

I saw the road company when it played in St. Paul and left at intermission. I wasn't the only one. A lot of people left. It was not a success. I think it's a misguided mess.

[ucjrdude902]

Posted: 4/21/07 at 11:04am

im confused what u guys are talking about. HELP!?

[shesamarshmallow]

Posted: 4/21/07 at 11:14am

"Come Up to My Office" is AMAZING. It's not meant to be Leo himself, it's meant to be the public perception of Leo, and it's incredibly effective I think.

[wickedfan]

Posted: 4/21/07 at 11:14am

The musical PARADE, which is based on the real life murder of Mary Phagan and the trial and hanging of Leo Frank, who was wrongly convicted of her murder.

[LostLeander]

Posted: 4/21/07 at 11:14am

If the "disagreeable" song you're talking about is Come Up to my Office... that's a fantasy sequence in which Mary's friend is telling a story about what she thinks happened.

[BroadwayAbridged]

Posted: 4/21/07 at 11:15am

The song at the end of act 1 (come down to my office) is supposed to just be a dramatization of how the girls are describing Leo Frank to the jury.

As far as not having enough on Mary Phagan, isn't that the point? According to the way the musical portrays her, she's just a little girl who ends up the victim. Nothing specific about her, she's innocent, and you get enough of her during that "let's go to the picture show" number.

Beyond that, I think they do a good job "foreshadowing" that Jim Conley, the african-american foreman at the factory who is in the chain gang at the end of the musical, is definitely lying and may be the one who killed her. I only found out after seeing the musical that he was.

Wikipedia's got some good info-ing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Frank

Updated On: 4/21/07 at 11:15 AM

[wickedfan]

Posted: 4/21/07 at 11:17am

My only quip about the show is that I wish that there was a brief section of the show where Lucille really questions his innocence, testing her trust in him and therefore testing the marriage. Of course, you could argue that the whole her standing by him when he's convicted is a test of their marriage, but I think it would just add some more dimension to Lucille if she wasn't 100% sure from the start that was innocent.

[dfwtheatreguy]

Posted: 4/21/07 at 1:20pm

maybe saying it wasn't clear wasn't totally accurate - i guess the thing is there was never a definitive answer for me.

like why did conley do it? why would people think leo did it (just b/c he was a northerner?)? and i agree that lucille accepts too easily leo's innocence without questioning.

the production at WaterTower here in Addison was good (not as horrible as recent "Into the Woods" or "LaMancha"), it really reminded me of "the cruciible" with the false conviction from the girls and the mob mentality. but the lack of scenery - it was all levels of scaffolding - really disappointed me. the lighting almost made up for it with vibrant colors, but too often singers were left in the dark. donald fowler's leo was the character i actually cared the least about, maybe due to the actor's flimsy, flitty, feminine portrayal. jennifer pasion's lucille, on the other hand, managed to ratchet up the emotional undertones of her character from the very first moment she stepped onstage until her final scene.

[John3]

Posted: 4/21/07 at 3:54pm

This is one of my favorite shows.

I saw a production of this done at a highschool, it wasn't too shabby.

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 4/21/07 at 3:56pm

"donald fowler's leo was the character i actually cared the least about, maybe due to the actor's flimsy, flitty, feminine portrayal."

We finally agree on something.

[dfwtheatreguy]

Posted: 4/21/07 at 4:00pm

oh joy oh rapture, you agree with me - my life is complete.

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 4/21/07 at 4:02pm

You are just so funny.

Why don't you go back to personally insulting 16 year old girls?

[dfwtheatreguy]

Posted: 4/21/07 at 4:04pm

So the ONLY reason they pinned the murder on Leo was because he was an educated Northerner? The whole scene with the governor (played wonderfully by Paul Taylor) just gave me chills - that same sort of mentality still exists.