Nightmare Fuel / Parade (1998)

• "Come Up to My Office" in which Leo takes the form of the factory girls' lies and engages in a vulgar seduction of them. An older man of power preying on young girls is already quite creepy, but seeing our main character turn into such a polar-opposite lech makes it especially unnerving. The intense music and deranged choreography only add to it. At the end of the song, Leo's actor do a 180 and transition from the pervert of the fabricated testimony to the wrongfully accused man sitting in court and shouting in horror and anger: "They were told to say that! They were coached! They were coached!" There's a terrifyingly stark contrast between the two demeanors.
• It's already arguably bad enough that the soaring anthem of "The Old Red Hills Of Home" is first sung by Confederate soldiers and their hardcore racist descendants but the finale has the exact same anthem used, but this time being sung by members of the Klan. Often conspicuously including Frankie Epps among their ranks. And this occurs just one short scene after Leo's lynching. It's a genuinely disturbing end to an already bleak show.
  • The opening of the scene in particular can evoke this. It starts with a young soldier (usually doubled with Frankie Epps) saying farewell to his sweetheart and that he's going to fight for his home. Sounds really courageous, even noble right? Then you realize he's wearing Confederate gray and what he's really going to fight for. The song then flash forwards to 50 years later when the young soldier is now an elderly veteran who lost his leg during the war. His line "not much survives of the old hills of Georgia" implies that he's embittered...but he has absolutely no regrets about fighting for the right to own slaves and would sacrifice his leg again if made to do it again. Not only that but there are people who agree with him. Brr...
  • When the song is reprised at the end, Lucille has joined those people watching the parade and takes off her hat in reverence as drums play the march that opened the song at the beginning of the show. Most productions have her take a few steps downstage so she's in the center of the stage. When the final beat is played, all the stage lights except the spotlight trained on Lucille shut off, plunging the stage into darkness except for her. Some actresses look behind while others stare forward into a bleak and unknown future. Yes, she might be "a Georgia girl" but it's clear that society has abandoned her because of what they think Leo did.
• The judge's verdict at the end of Act 1 that Leo, having been found guilty, is to be hanged is immediately followed by a joyful cakewalk as the townspeople celebrate the decision while Leo and Lucille can do nothing but hug each other and beg for his life. Already pretty terrifying, but then the music becomes increasingly loud and discordant and the choreography in most productions becomes increasingly manic and deranged... and all the while, Leo and Lucille are clinging to each other and sobbing until they're physically torn away from each other by the cops...
  • Some productions make the whole thing a twisted version of the Hora (the Jewish wedding chair dance), adding to the discomfort.
• Truth in Television: The Franks' maid Minnie was terrorized during the court proceedings. In the musical, the terror of being held for interrogation is what forced her to lie on the stand. She's so traumatized for it.
• Newt Lee getting interrogated. His testimony about finding Mary's body is already horrifying enough. While Newt doesn't end up being targeted by the police, he still shuts his eyes and prays as if accepting his end. When you consider the atmosphere of the time, Newt knows that he might get falsely accused and get a death sentence.
• Leo's whole ordeal is arguably this. Imagine being falsely accused and convicted of a crime you didn't commit because you're an outcast due to your upbringing, your faith and your values. Said accusers are using the case not to get justice for a 13 year old girl but to further their own careers. And even when the governor finds enough sufficient evidence to commute your sentence, it just results in things snowballing out of anyone's control.
• During the song "My Child Will Forgive Me'', Mrs. Phagan is called to testify and identify the clothes Mary wore on her last day alive. She sings about how she feels like she failed as a parent, putting Mary in the situation that got her killed...and how she takes comfort in knowing Mary is now in Heaven where she'll be safe and protected by God. It's a moving Tear Jerker in the right hands. That's until the end of the song, when she delivers the mother of all Wham Lines to Leo. Done right, you go from crying for this mother who has lost her child in a horrific manner to gasping in horror at just how much she hates the man accused of killing her daughter.

  Mrs. Phagan: My Mary will teach me to open my heart. (to Leo) And so, I forgive you...(sneers) Jew.

• Near the end of the musical, Governor Slaton has uncovered evidence that Leo didn't receive a fair trial and that testimony was falsified and makes the announcement to commute Leo's sentence to life in prison and removal to a prison farm where he'll be safer...a decision that ends up destroying his political aspirations completely. You begin to think Leo and Lucille are out of the woods...then Watson begins singing "Where Will You Stand When The Flood Comes" gospel style. His voice drowns out Slaton's and he and Dorsey (the two arguably most responsible for Leo's situation) start riling people about the injustice done to "Mary, Mary the angel child". More people start joining in until pretty much the whole cast joins in. You hear reports from Craig about Jewish stores getting vandalized and one poor clothier being beaten to a bloody pulp which really DID happen in the aftermath of Leo's sentence being commuted. The original Broadway production ended the song with some members of the cast bringing lit torches onto the stage, shouting "Someone's going to pay when the flood comes!" That's when it sinks in for you that Leo is doomed no matter what anyone does.
• "That's What He Said", when Jim Conley is brought to the stand. He plays the assembled crowd like a fiddle, launching into this story about how Leo was a perverted man and how Leo first threatened and then bribed him to help dispose "Miss Mary Perkins's" body in the basement. That's bad enough. Then the crowd interjects with various statements, crescendoing until they're practically screaming "HANG HIM!" at the end of the song in the OBC recording.