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Ben Platt: "Parade"

 It's odd to connect "Parade" with "Into the Woods," but both are thorny depictions of marriage. (Guess who does it better? Sondheim does it better.)


"Into the Woods" has a struggling Baker and his smart wife; the two fight over goals and decisions, but the unexpected turmoil of a major quest causes them to rediscover their love for each other ("It Takes Two"). This moment of celebration is especially powerful because you know--very soon--one of the spouses will die.

"Parade" is essentially the same story, although the writers forget to show us even a minute of warmth between the spouses in the First Act. When the husband eventually sings, to his wife, "I will never understand what I did to deserve you," he is really speaking for the audience, and for the writers themselves. No one can understand Lucille's devotion to Leo, because the story--as presented by Uhry/Brown--doesn't fully make sense.

That said, it's moving when Lucille and Leo discover that they have a common cause--a route toward working together. Leo gets wind in his sails: "Tell my uncle not to worry; tell the Reaper not to hurry. Make the hangman stop his drumming because I'm coming into town....to win the day...." You take notice of Lucille, who has found a route out of her dreary housewife existence, and who declares her plan via belted high notes: "I will speak for you, Leo."

This is the song that stops the show. Weirdly, one of many errors the writers make is to fail to finish Lucille's story: We learn that Lucille remains in Georgia after her husband's death, but we don't really learn why, and we don't learn what she does with her life. Given that Lucille is truly the protagonist of this musical, the cloudiness in the last ten minutes feels disappointing and strange.

I thought this messy, occasionally tacky show--the TRUE CRIME MUSICAL!--was an adequate vehicle for Micaela Diamond, and I thought it was worth the price of admission.

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