Parade

[Justice]

Posted: 12/25/04 at 2:15pm

i just got the cd, and am listening to it. Was the show just as amazing as the recording? I think this is one of my new fave OBCR.

[son_of_a_gunn_25]

Posted: 12/25/04 at 2:17pm

I've been wanting to get this one for awhile. It's at the top of my list with Last 5 Years. If I have enough money left over after I get my shoes for my marathon training I am going to go buy them. We may be doing Parade this summer at a local theatre and I've only heard good things about it.

[liveforeverybreath]

Posted: 12/25/04 at 2:19pm

Imagine the audio along with a visual! Really good! Carmello and Romano...awsome!

[Justice]

Posted: 12/25/04 at 2:19pm

L5Y is great! Sherie Renee Scott became a fave performer to me after hearing that. It's ten times better if you relate to the characters, which is probably why I love it so much.

[son_of_a_gunn_25]

Posted: 12/25/04 at 2:23pm

Everytime I hear L5Y on BWW Radio I get this incredible urge to get a credit card so I can buy it online. I have resisted so far. Son/gunn+credit card=financial ruin I know I could never to a credit card. I'll be a debit card boy. (Which reminds me I've been meaning to get one.)

[liveforeverybreath]

Posted: 12/25/04 at 2:26pm

I've gotten myself in quite the trouble with my credit card and the broadway.com store, about $500 worth.

[Plum]

Posted: 12/25/04 at 2:48pm

"The Old Red Hills of Home" was my addiction for about 3 weeks after I got Parade. What a song.

[Broadway Matt]

Posted: 12/25/04 at 2:52pm

JRB is one of my very favorite composers, and this is one of my favorite newer scores. BUT there's a reason it didn't do well as a full production. It's a very hard book and score to stage effectively, and Hal Prince did as good a job as can be expected. I disagree with some who say the production was a mess, but I agree it was nowhere near as amazing the music standalone.

Updated On: 12/25/04 at 02:52 PM

[Justice]

Posted: 12/25/04 at 2:58pm

I figured it didn't last because the content was so heavy.

[Broadway Matt]

Posted: 12/25/04 at 2:58pm

Les Mis is no walk in the park.

[magruder]

Posted: 12/25/04 at 3:00pm

I loved Parade. I thought it was beautifully staged and designed, and Carolee Carmello and Brent Carver were excellent. I think there's probably a flaw just built into the material. As much as its about Leo's trial and the events surrounding it, the show is about two cold people learning they need and love each other. That emotional quadrant of the show kicks in very late in Act Two, and that was probably too late in the game for general audiences to feel involved with the proceedings. But certain things in the score, the performances and the staging will stick with me for life.

[Plum]

Posted: 12/25/04 at 3:46pm

Magruder, I think you're right about that. Shows without a love story seem to have a very hard time lasting.

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 12/25/04 at 4:28pm

I figured it didn't last because the content was so heavy.

Many people say that what brought Parade down was its book. I haven't seen it, but from what the reviews I've read, most of the show's weaknesses stem from its plodding, unimaginative and flawed narrative structure. It would be great if this work was revisited with a new book; I think the material is rich.

Posted: 12/25/04 at 5:47pm

If you like Parade you have to go on a JRB rampage and get Last Five Years and Songs for a New World! All of his work is incredible. I can't wait for what is to come from him.

[Blair]

Posted: 12/25/04 at 9:24pm

"It Don't Make Sense" is the only song that has ever made me bawl my eyes out just listening to the OBCR. It's one of my favorite cast recordings I own. Just gorgeous music.

[edenespinosalover]

Posted: 12/25/04 at 9:39pm

We did it at my high school 2 years ago and it was BY FAR the best experience I've ever had performing in a musical. The music is absolutely gorgeous and JRB is just amazing.

[magruder]

Posted: 12/26/04 at 1:08am

Another problem: I think Parade probably made gentile audiences very uncomfortable. Depictions of anti-Semitism in a work like Cabaret, for example, is easier to digest, because it's set in Berlin in the 1930s, and gentile audiences can say, oh, how terrible, and feel comfortably removed from culpability. The depiction of the latent anti-Semitism of the Deep South (and America by a larger token), is much harder to dismiss. Such images as the townspeople performing a jubilant cakewalk as Frank is unaccountably found guilty, or the virulence of such numbers as "Where Will You Stand When the Flood Comes?" and "That's What He Said" or the depiction of Frank's lynching were also similarly unsettling. It's all a part of the underside of America's history, but I can understand if non-Jews found Parade tough going.

Posted: 12/26/04 at 1:21am

I was lucky enough to do this show 2 years ago as Frankie Epps..and it's still one of the most powerful shows I've ever done...It deserves to be brought as a revival in the near future! Hope everyone had a good holiday! :)