This Post Is Going To Be All About Parade The Musical.

This post is going to be all about Parade the Musical.

First of all, LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Parade. Absolutely adore it. It's my favorite musical of all time and here's why.

1. The Story

The plot is based off of the real life of Leo Frank and his story. If you don't know his story I highly suggest you read about it and his trial (warning: themes of antisemitism, murder and assault). Though this case happened in the early 20th century, many aspects of it still apply to us as a society now. The way the musical portrays the effects of racism on many different characters is just amazing. For Leo and for Newt, the prejudice against them means very different things for them, yet it's the same type of hatred in so many ways. There are just so many amazing and powerful moments in the musical that are noteworthy and the parallels you as an audience member are able to draw between then and now are eye opening.

2. The Music

The music is AMAZING. The use of instruments traditionally used in a marching band (or parade) setting vs. the use of more symphonic instruments is genius. The way JRB uses minor and major modes to portray each character's personal journey is PERFECTION. I highly suggest you watch some of his videos about how he uses musical devices to tell each character's story. Here is a video of him explaining some of the process between writing the opening number "The Old Red Hills Of Home" (sidenote: I HAD NO IDEA HE COULD SING UNTIL I WATCHED THIS VIDEO). Not only does he tell each character's story through these breathtaking orchestrations, but also he moves the audience with the characters through their journey. The main way I would describe Parade is as a musical journey. I have listened and seen lots of musicals but very few are able to put the audience on a true musical journey. In Parade, the music reflects the emotions and thoughts of each character. When there is a change in a character's thoughts or feelings, the music reflects that change. JRB does this through the use of major and minor and also reoccurring melodies (another thing composers do that I love). The music does an amazing job of capturing Leo and Lucille's darkest moments and their biggest breakthroughs. Just look at the difference musically in "Leo's Statement" vs. "This Is Not Over Yet". These choices were made by JRB on purpose to take the audience on Leo's musical journey. The musical journey helps the audience understand the story, above all else. The music is not simply an ornament on the story's tree. It's more akin to the straw in the story's cup. The audience could drink out of the cup without the straw. Would they still get the drink? Yes. However, using a straw is a more efficient way to get the drink to the audience. The "drink" is the meaning and message of the story in this metaphor (I hope that all made sense I am terrible at metaphors).

3. Impact On The Audience (+ my personal faves from Parade)

Of course, no two audience members are going to feel the exact same after seeing the show, however, I do think this point is important to note. The intended impact on the audience isn't necessarily to make them bawl their eyes out (though I do know many including myself who have because of this show). The intended impact is to both educate the audience on the story of Leo Frank and move them to examine their own lives and create change in society now. It's no mistake that this specific story was chosen. Leo Frank's story has many parallels to today that we still see. Themes of racism, injustice, antisemitism, loss of hope, etc. All of these are things we see today. In my opinion, the best musicals (or just art in general) are ones where we can watch (or read or listen to) them and come away from them learning something about today. No matter when it was made. If you walk out of a musical and find yourself making connections to the real world, it had an impact! This is part of why I love Parade. It's not only a great piece of art on its own but it's also relevant. Not only that but I believe musicals are one of the best mediums for impactful messages like this ESPECIALLY for younger generations. I could go on a whole tangent about why, but I will shorten it to this: people love music and love stories and musicals are both combined. So many people love musicals because it's combining 3 mediums (verbal storytelling, visual storytelling and music) to make one final product. Parade combines the three beautifully, making it very effective and impactful. A great example of this is my favorite song from the entire show, "Don't Make Sense". Short bits of dialogue interrupt the music throughout this song which make it all the more beautiful. The song starts with a group of people singing a hymn. The hymn is then overlayed with dialogue, a news report of Mary Phagan's funeral, which continues until we hear Frankie begin to sing. The beginning part alone is just beautiful storytelling. It introduces the funeral visually and musically. In the dialogue, the reporter mentions that Mary was "2 months shy of 14" and that some of Mary's friends were "deemed too small to shoulder the burden". This line alone reiterates just how young Mary was, reinforcing how tragic her death was and who it affects. The music in the back being a hymn sets the gloomy scene for the funeral. Then, when Frankie begins to sing about Mary and what he loved about her (on the lyrics "did you ever hear her laugh?), the music changes to a brighter tone (bright may not be the right word for it but I don't know what else to describe it as). Specifically, this change comes in on the word "laugh", which is just genius. Her laugh is the thing that triggers the music to lighten in tone because her laugh was able to lighten people's moods. This brighter melody returns in the song when other people sing about what Mary was like. Mary was a light in people's lives and so she's also a light in the music. There are so many more moments in this song AND in the musical I could talk about but I simply cannot or else this would be as long as War and Peace. I just wanted to highlight one from my favorite song in the musical.

This entire post was hardly proofread so excuse any errors. I may or may not go back to edit them.

Anyways, I HIGHLY suggest you listen to or even go see this amazing show. I highly recommend you listen to the OBC and revival cast albums. I also recommend the 2007 album also.. They're all amazing.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading!

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