All Grown-Up

Initially, Brooks didn’t share Rothstein’s enthusiasm. “I told him, ‘Yeah, right. I’m going to produce a musical about hanging a Jew.’ ” They decided instead to do Fiddler on the Roof, but the rights were denied and Brooks was left scrambling to fill the gap in MJTC’s season. Rothstein again suggested Parade; Brooks gave it another listen and green-lit the project.

The show features many familiar Latté Da faces. Dieter Bierbrauer stars as Leo Frank; Ann Michels plays Frank’s loyal wife, Lucille. Jody Briskey, who was a knockout in Latté Da’s production of Gypsy, and Tod Petersen—best known for A Christmas Carole Petersen—are featured too. Brooks herself makes a brief appearance as the governor’s wife. (Yes, she had to audition.) MJTC usually mounts its work in a small space at the Highland Park Library, but Parade is a breakout production that will be presented at the History Theatre in downtown St. Paul.

Rothstein, who is not Jewish, says that Parade, like any good piece of dramatic writing, has universal themes. “It deals with big ideas and the culture and psychology of that time,” he says. “It’s a complicated and fascinating look at race and racism and the white power structure. It was an emotionally charged event in our history, and that’s perfect for a musical form. Musicals work best when something is so emotionally charged that talking about it isn’t enough. A successful musical has to have epic ideas in it and [the writers] found a way to make this story epic.”

Bierbrauer, an opera-trained singer who has been a regular in Latté Da shows—Floyd Collins, A Christmas Carole Petersen, A Man of No Importance—says he enjoys stretching his metaphorical wings as an actor and is excited to play Leo Frank. “It’s really important for people to know that Parade is not just based on a true story—it is a true story,” he says. “It hasn’t been fashioned in a way to attack or blame one thing or another. I can see the different reasons people wanted to go after Frank. The fact that he was Jewish—that helps—but [I believe] it was reasons other than just that. In my mind, [this musical] is not a political statement—it’s about telling the story and making sure that it is heard.”

The girl’s murder, notes Bierbrauer, occurred during a Confederate Memorial Day parade. Frank was a Brooklyn–born, well-educated Jew who had a lot of money in a city still struggling to recover economically from the Civil War. “Frank was not your run-of-the-mill Southerner,” he says. “I think there were people who really wanted to go after him because he was a Yankee, not just because he was a Jew. They were celebrating a war they had lost, and it may have given them something to latch onto.”

Parade does not have a kick-line or happy ending, which may discourage folks who like their musicals frothy—but Brooks isn’t concerned. “I want people to come, obviously, but I’m never going to pander or change our mission to get people here.” The mission is what sustains the theater and that isn’t going to change, she says with an amused glint in her eye. “A few years ago, someone from a larger theater called and told me they were going to do a Jewish play [and were after our audience]. I told them, ‘Good. If you’d done this years ago, I wouldn’t have had to start this theater in the first place.’ So we’re going to promote Parade the way we do all our shows—and people will come.”

Parade runs February 21–March 16 at The History Theatre, 30 E. 10th St., St. Paul, 651-292-4323