A sorry chapter in American history is retold in Parade, playing through Sunday, Nov. 15, at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. It’s the story of Leo Frank, lynching victim of anti-Semitic hooligans in 1915 Atlanta.

Frank was a victim of the Civil War backlash that set in when the South was defeated. Atlanta in particular was left devastated by Sherman’s march to Savannah. Residents, left to pick up the pieces, harbored fear of and hatred for northerners and other outsiders.

Frank (T.R. Knight) fit the profile: both a Cornell-educated Yankee and a Jew, Frank moved to Atlanta to become superintendent of his uncle’s pencil factory, but never fit in with the local good ole boy mentality. He made little attempt to ingratiate himself with the locals, showing himself both short-tempered and contemptuous of social institutions like the titular parade commemorating Confederate Memorial Day (“Why would anyone celebrate losing a war?” he asks).

He even took the local Jews to task for falling in with the Southern mindset: “I can’t understand how God created you people Jewish and Southern at the same time,” the exasperated Frank tells his Southern Jewish wife Lucille.

So when 13-year-old employee Mary Phagan (Rose Sezniak) was found strangled in the factory’s basement in 1913, and Frank was one of the last three people to see Mary alive (the others were night watchman Newt Lee and janitor Jim Conley, both played by David St. Louis), Georgia governor Slaton (Michael Berresse) tasked District Attorney Hugh Dorsey (Christian Hoff) with convicting someone at a time when “hanging another black man ain’t enough” (an election was at stake).

Mob psychology, political expediency and dislike of Frank in particular led to his dubious conviction, despite the absence of conclusive evidence. He was sentenced to death in 1913, later to be dragged from his cell and lynched by angry townsmen.

This sorry event not only has historical import (it precipitated the establishment of the Anti-Defamation League), but also personal significance for playwright Harold Uhry: his great-uncle owned the factory where the murder took place.

Jason Robert Brown’s score is an intriguing combination of recitatif-like pieces aimed at the audience rather than another character (such as Frank’s “How Can I Call This Home?”), courtly numbers reminiscent of the Old South, blues, gospel and occasional barn-burners like the newly inserted “Hammer of Jusice.” Uhry and Brown won Tonys for book and score, respectively.

This is a strong cast all around. Knight (a former “Grey’s Anatomy” regular) and Pulver (the lone holdover from the London cast) are fine together as the aggrieved couple who grow closer throughout their ordeal (she almost manages to save his life). Hoff and Berresse are excellent as the DA and Gov. Slaton. But the scene stealer is St. Louis, whose commanding presence and full, rich voice left me wishing he had more songs.

This third mounting of Parade is scaled back from the original, with a minimal but serviceable set and a small orchestra hidden offstage on the second level. The use of spots and blocking to show Frank’s isolation is particularly effective; less so was some lack of coordination of voices with instruments, likely due to the lack of propinquity.

There’s an awful lot of stage business going on, and the script could use some judicious trimming. Two small examples: the opening Civil War scene seems unnecessary, as does the ghost who flits through from time to time.

This dark show may be a tough sell in times like these, when life is dark enough. But Parade is worth a look, if only as a reminder of actions that must not be repeated.

Parade runs through Sunday, Nov. 15, at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. Shows Tuesday through Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2:30 and 8 p.m.; Sunday at 1 and 6:30 p.m. For tickets, call 213-628-2772 or visit www.CenterTheatreGroup.org.

There’s nothing like Thanksgiving dinner to showcase family idiocy. What, you thought I’d say “unity?” Well, okay, Phil Olson’s A Nice Family Gathering eventually gets around to that as well. The show plays through Saturday, Nov. 14, at OnStage Playhouse in Chula Vista. Bob Christiansen directs.

Mom (Eileen Ivey), recently widowed and apparently sliding into Alzheimer’s, has convened this particular Thanksgiving dinner in suburban Minnesota. Dad (Neal Sullivan) died 10 months ago, but his ghost returns to talk son Carl (Nathan Plummer) into passing on the message that he loved mom (it seems dad never got around to it, and it’s impeding his progress on the Other Side). In the ghost fashion of Topper or Blithe Spirit, only Carl sees or hears old dad.

Carl is a wannabe full-time writer who pens a local newspaper column but makes a living as a truck driver. He feels looked down on by everyone, especially brother Michael (Rob Conway), who did the “right” thing by following in their physician dad’s footsteps. Michael worries about being in debt up to his eyeballs (but is content to call mom’s problem forgetfulness and despondency), while wife Jill (Jenna Dawsey) spends a lot of time crying about her inability to have a baby.

Younger sister Stacy (Layla Stuckey) has spent a lifetime being ignored (Mom doesn’t even notice she’s there until someone points it out). But she will drop a couple of unforeseen bombshells before the evening is over.

Then there’s mom’s “date” Jerry (Dan Feraldo), dad’s former golf buddy, whose reputation as a leech who attaches himself to wealthy widows unites the family in the desire to get rid of him.

Billed as the story of a man who loved his wife so much he almost told her, A Nice Family Gathering offers mostly predictable holiday fare, enough giggles to keep the audience I was part of happy, and an ending that ties up some loose ends and leaves others.

Charles Nichols has done a nice job with the set, the snow-bedecked Lundeen front porch leading into the comfortable living room.

Plummer is effective as Carl, though it seems a bit odd that he is the only one with a consistent Norwegian accent. Sullivan has a great time playing the ghost (wouldn’t we all like to do that?) and tormenting his son. Conway and Dawsey are convincing (and properly annoying) as the family Yuppies.

My argument with the play lies with the playwright’s portrayal of Mom and Stacy. Though Mom seems fairly far along on the dementia trail in the first act, she seems to have a miraculous recovery in the second act. And what are we to make of Stacy, the silent one, about whom no one seems to want to know anything? Would she really opt to be in the company of such uncaring people? It’s a credit to Ivey and Stuckey that they manage to make us believe these characters.

A Nice Family Gathering plays through Saturday, Nov. 14, at OnStage Playhouse. Shows Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m.; matinee Sunday at 2 p.m. For tickets, call 619-422-77887 or visit www.onstageplayhouse.org.