Posted on April 26, 2013 at 10:16 pm
Today – April 26, 2013 – marks the one hundredth anniversary of the murder of Mary Phagan in the basement of the National Pencil Company in Atlanta, Georgia on the day of the Confederate Memorial Day Parade. I have spent many years carrying the facts of that day around in my head, and I have always felt it was a very serious responsibility to be asked to give voice to Mary and to Leo Frank, her employer and the man falsely accused of her murder. There are people in the world today who know about this case because of the musical that Alfred Uhry and I wrote; I am deeply honored by the opportunity I was given.
I didn’t have a child when I wrote Parade, and now I have two. Two beautiful little girls who, a hundred years later, live a life that would have been unimaginable to Mary Phagan, but who carry my dreams and hopes inside them as surely as Mary carried her mother’s.
5 comments
Absolutely stunning. One of my favourite numbers in the show, such a heart breaker.
Phenomenal! One of my favourite songs in the show! Awesome!
Simply one of the most powerful songs I’ve ever performed. A wonderfully touching tribute that still resonates.
This is such a gorgeous piece, my absolute favorite from Parade. I am in a production right now of this show as Mary, and I got to hear this song live for the first time at rehearsal the other night, and it is such a powerful and beautiful song. This uploaded version is just phenomenal!
I stage-managed a production of Parade in the summer of 2007, and this number without fail was one of the hardest ones to stay backstage for. During one dress rehearsal, everything just clicked and everyone felt so strongly in the moment of the funeral that the actress playing Mary’s aunt could barely choke out her line, and at the end of the number had to rush off stage and have her corset loosened so she could breathe through gasping for breath and crying. It was one of the single most powerful moments of my life, and I just wanted to say thank you for giving grief music to move in so eloquently. I will never forget the summer I spent working on this magnificent show, nor will I forget my deep interest in the Mary Phagan case which was sparked by this production. Thank you, Jason Robert Brown! I’m pretty sure you and I are kindred artists.
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