Show Synopsis:
Leo Frank feels out of place in 1913 Marietta, Georgia as an educated Jew, and it's putting a strain on his marriage with Lucille. He is woken in the middle of the night because his African-American night watchman Newt found his teenage employee Mary raped and murdered in the factory he owns. The authorities suspect Newt, who casts the blame on Leo, and the reporter Britt Craig begins a media campaign to make the outraged townspeople suspect him as well. The town prosecutor Hugh Dorsey wants to bolster his conviction record and bribes a factory employee to testify against Leo. He influences a few more townspeople to lie about Leo, who gives a heartfelt speech about his innocence but is found guilty. Leo makes an appeal to the court but it causes further arguments with Lucille, who asks Governor Slaton for help on Leo's behalf. The governor reopens the case, which has been in the news in the northern states because of its questionable process, and many people who testified begin to change their stories. The governor moves Leo to a prison in a different town, even though it damages his personal political career, and the citizens of Marietta are outraged. Leo professes his love Lucille but when she leaves the prison a lynching mob kidnaps Leo and hangs him on a tree in Marietta. Lucille takes comfort in the fact that Leo is with God.
Character:
Lucille Frank, a young woman who wants more out of her marriage than Leo has been able to give her of late; gentle but resilient.
Song Context:
Leo is in jail, and Lucille is convinced that all the terrible slanderous rumors about Leo are not true. She tells all the nosy townspeople and Britt Craig as much.
Fun Facts:
1) This musical was based on the 1913 trial of the Jewish man Leo Frank who was convicted of raping and murdering the teenage Mary Phagan and later lynched.
2) Carolee Carmello originated the role of Lucille on Broadway and won a Tony Award for her performance.
3) According to historical accounts, Leo and Lucille Frank had a political and rather loveless marriage, which caused Leo to stray to other women.
"You don't know this man.
You don't know a thing.
You come here with these horrifying stories,
These contemptible conceits,
And you think you understand how a man?s heart beats
And you don't know a thing.
You don't know this man.
You don't even try.
When a man writes his mother every Sunday,
Pays his bills before they're due,
Works so hard to feed his family -
There's your murderer for you!
And you stand there spittin' words
That you know aren't true.
Then you don't know this man.
I don't think you could.
You don't have the right to know
A man that wise and good.
He is a decent man.
He is an honest man,
And you don't know,
And you never will -
Not from me, not from anyone who knows him
Not a morsel, not a crumb, not a clue.
I have nothing more to say to you."