| PARADE has a rich, varied score that’s impeccably played and sung here. The show tells a specific story, of course, but originally it was also the sort of socio-historical panorama--a Hal Prince specialty--that's hard to contract into a concert staging. Here, the music has a sonic range—and dimensionality—that the presentation cannot match; rather than working with the book, the score overwhelms it. Too many important characters seem to come and go, the truncated form eliding their narrative significance; it’s hard to retain them in the overarching story. Still, the music is sumptuously symphonic, and it’s terrific to hear it full throttle. In a variety of registers, JRB's an unabashedly fervid writer. There’s more passion than play in this iteration of PARADE, but the ardor is thrilling. |
