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Don't let the title fool you. ''Parade'' is not a light-hearted, feel-good musical. This is serious, substantive, and operatically dark musical theater that tackles the infamous 1913 murder of young Mary Phagan and the subsequent railroading and hanging of Leo Frank, the Jewish manager of the pencil factory where Mary worked. With a book by Alfred Uhry (''Driving Miss Daisy'') and a multi-layered score by Jason Robert Brown, the 1999 Tony Award-winning musical touches on themes of anti-Semitism, media hype, and political opportunism. The real story, though, centers on the relationship between Frank and his wife (played by Brendan McNab and Bridget Beirne, above), which is not only complicated but rekindled by the tragedy. With 29 actors and nine musicians, this is SpeakEasy's largest production and marks the musical's Boston professional premiere.
--Karen Campbell, Globe Correspondent
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SpeakEasy Stage Company is concluding an ambitious season with its most ambitious production yet, a large-scale staging of the musical "Parade." Director Paul Daigneault deploys his sizable forces with a strong sense of pattern and flow, expertly arranging both crowded tableaux and intimate smaller scenes on Eric Levenson's fluid set; music director Jose Delgado and choreographer David Connolly provide powerful and graceful support. If only the production -- and the musical itself -- were as richly three-dimensional as the effort put into it. (Full review)