'Parade' Broadway review: Flawed musical gets heartfelt revival - New York Post

Those clashing forces are what drive this revival, which opened Thursday night at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, and make the audience automatically want what’s best for Lucille and Leo — even though we know that a peaceful life is tragically out of reach for them.

Truth be told, “Parade” is a musical that will forever be good rather than great — hampered by writer Alfred Uhry’s book of stereotypical Southern cartoons, who are made less menacing and real because of their flatness, and a score by Brown that features both his best songs and his most forgettable.

While working as a manager at the National Pencil Co., he’s arrested on suspicion of killing a teenage employee named Mary Phagan (Erin Rose Doyle), whose body is found in the building.

Joan MarcusBrown’s finest music, and Platt’s most heart-wrenching work, come during his trial, as three factory girls (who have been coached to lie) hauntingly harmonize their testimony like Abigail from “The Crucible.” Brown has yet to top it in any show.

The second act has more built-in structural issues, as Lucille works tirelessly to appeal her husband’s verdict and enlists the help of Governor Slaton (Sean Allan Krill) to get Leo home.

And Diamond, whose combination of fragility and power is thrilling for an actress so young, brings an electricity to her duets with Platt: “This Is Not Over Yet” and the romantic “All the Wasted Time,” which fades into the musical’s devastating conclusion.