I also adore the cast recording for PARADE, but everything I've read has lead me to believe that it had a weak book and therefore did not translate well on stage. I think it would be very interesting to see, but I highly doubt it's as flawless as the recording would lead you to believe.
This is what I consider to be a very telling review of the cast album (taken from playbill.com):
PARADE (RCA) Having run a mere ten, not-so-full weeks at the 1,100-seat Vivian Beaumont Theatre, it is to be suspected that very many people will listen to the original cast album of Jason Robert Brown's Parade without having had the opportunity to see it. And I can just hear them now, angrily crying "wait a minute, this stuff is good, damn those critics," and wondering how the show could possibly have failed so resoundingly.
That's a good question, if you're judging the score by the disc. The short answer, I think, is that from the very beginning of the show -- in the theatre -- you were hit with a feeling the creators were stacking the decks, pulling every possible string to manipulate you into feeling whatever it was they wanted you to feel. It was almost as if the production had a wall of pretentiousness, emblazoned with the slogan "this show is artistic, and if you don't like it that's your problem." At least that's the way I felt; whatever the problem was, Parade sure antagonized its audiences.
And now comes the original cast album, displaying a score far better -- and more beautiful -- than it sounded in the theater. Brown's first Broadway offering is intelligent, moving and highly impressive.
In the theater, the creators seemed to want you to dislike their leading characters; presumably so they could turn it around in the second act, when the pair became unlikely lovers. I disliked them all right, so much so that I had little patience for anything they had to say or sing most of the evening. This was especially the case with Brent Carver, playing the doomed Leo Frank. Carver is an extremely talented actor, and he shines through on the cast album with a warm and sympathetic performance. In the theater, though, director Harold Prince and his collaborators apparently did not want you to feel sympathy for Leo when he was railroaded for a crime he didn't commit, thus presenting the audience with a moral dilemma. I certainly didn't feel sympathy for Leo in the theater, so much so that his songs -- which are attractive and moving on the recording -- fell on singularly unreceptive ears. Multiply that by dozens of reviewers and thousands of viewers, and that might explain why Parade so quickly faltered.
Is there a future life for Parade? maybe as a small-scale chamber piece, without all that production and all that acting and all that pretension? Absent the various distractions, Jason Robert Brown's score is rich and varied, and I imagine it will become even more enjoyable with repeated listening. There is also an especially fine set of orchestrations from Don Sebesky, who manages to keep up with Brown's many changes of pace and uses his orchestra to comment on the action. I also suspect musical director Eric Stern deserves a good deal of credit. Some of the major numbers, like "Real Big News" and the extended trial sequence, are extremely complicated and impeccably handled.
Let me also add that while not without flaws, this is easily the finest score of the current, undernourished season. While it is uncommon for a quick failure to take the Tony Award for Best Score over shows that are still running, Parade just might be able to pull it off. A considerable portion of the voters are out-of-towners, who were unable or unwilling to make a special mid-winter trip solely to see this poorly received show. (Theoretically, of course, Tony voters only vote in categories in which they've seen all the nominees.) Listening to this disc -- and comparing it to Footloose and The Civil War, so help us -- many voters might well wonder how a show with such a high quality score could have failed, which I imagine will be the reaction of many listeners.
"You're the worst thing to happen to musical theatre since Andrew Lloyd Webber!" --Family Guy
"Shut up! It's been 29 years!!!" --the incomparable Patti LuPone in her MUCH DESERVED Tony acceptance speech for Gypsy.
Kitzy's Avatar du Jour: Kitzy as Little Red Ridinghood in her college's production of "Into the Woods"
Updated On: 4/4/06 at 10:00 AM
