Parade Reveals How Prejudice and Fake News Can Sway the Public to the Dark Side

Leo Frank (Max Chernin) wonders "How Can I Call This Place Home?" when it's so different from his comfortable Jewish life in Brooklyn. (Photo credit: Joan Marcus)

Writers have learned since taking pen to paper that it is best to write what you know. As a Jewish man growing up in Atlanta in the 1940s and 1950s celebrating Christmas and Easter while never attending a seder or following any Jewish traditions, playwright Alfred Uhry was subjected to all the antisemitism that runs rampant through his masterpiece musical Parade now at the Ahmanson Theatre. The production, which won the 2023 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, is the tragic and true story of Brooklyn-born and Jewish Leo Frank who, in 1913, moved to Atlanta with his Southern-raised Jewish wife to manage her uncle’s pencil factory. But from the moment Leo arrives, he cannot accept calling a place that celebrates Confederate Memorial Day as home. And it is that deep-rooted Southern pride which emanates from within the heart of soul of everyone there, along with deep-seated prejudice for others who do not think or look like they do, that fuels the musical’s sad tale.

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