Alleged drunken driver slams into 150-year-old monument in Nantucket, police say

After crashing into the side of the monument, the car rolled over and came to rest on its roof on the sidewalk, officials said.
The crash also caused'visible damage' to the monument, officials said.
Emergency responders found Franca de Brito lying on the ground next to the overturned vehicle, officials said.
07nantucket - The scene after an alleged drunk driver crashed his car into the Nantucket Civil War Monument. (Jason Graziadei/Nantucket Current)
Jason Graziadei/Nantucket Current
He was 'complaining of discomfort' and was
taken to Nantucket Cottage Hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening, officials said.
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He was arrested at the hospital and charged with operating under the influence of alcohol, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, speeding, failing to stop or yield, and leaving the scene of a property damage accident, officials said.
The monument was erected in 1874 and dedicated in May 1875, according to the
The monument is dedicated to the soldiers and sailors of Nantucket who died fighting in the Civil War, according to
The Nantucket Current previously
Sarah Mesdjian can be reached at

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Los Angeles Times

a day ago

• Los Angeles Times

The Tony-winning revival of ‘Parade' turns a miscarriage of justice into gripping musical drama

Leo Frank, the superintendent of a pencil factory in Georgia, was accused of murdering a young employee, 13-year-old Mary Phagan. His 1913 trial led to his conviction despite shoddy evidence and the manipulations of an ambitious prosecuting attorney, who shamelessly preyed on the prejudices of the jury. After a series of failed appeals, Frank's sentence was commuted by the governor, but he was kidnapped and lynched by a mob enraged that his death sentence wasn't being imposed. The story garnered national attention and threw a spotlight on the fault lines of our criminal justice system. This dark chapter in American history might not seem suitable for musical treatment. Docudrama would be the safer way to go, given the gravity of the material. But playwright Alfred Uhry and composer and lyricist Jason Robert Brown had a vision of what they could uniquely bring to the retelling of Frank's story. Their 1998 musical was a critical hit but a difficult sell. More admired than beloved, the show has extended an open challenge to theater artists drawn to the sophisticated majesty of Brown's Tony-winning score but daunted by the expansive scope of Uhry's Tony-winning book. Director Michael Arden has answered the call in his Tony-winning revival, which has arrived at the Ahmanson Theatre in sharp form. The production, which launched at New York City Center before transferring to Broadway, proved that a succès d'estime could also be an emotionally stirring hit. 'Parade' covers a lot of cultural, historical, and political ground. The trial, prefaced by a Civil War snapshot that sets the action in the proper context, takes up much of the first act. But the musical also tells the story of a marriage that grows in depth as external reality becomes more treacherous. It's a lot to sort through, but Arden, working hand in hand with scenic designer Dane Laffrey, has conceptualized the staging in a neo-Brechtian fashion that allows the historical background to be seamlessly transmitted. Sven Ortel's projections smoothly integrate the necessary information, allowing the focus to be on the human figures caught in the snares of American bigotry and barbarism. The 2007 Donmar Warehouse revival, directed by Rob Ashford, came to the Mark Taper Forum in 2009 with the promise that it had finally figured out the musical. The production was scaled down, but the full potency of 'Parade' wasn't released. An earnest layer of 'importance' clouded the audience's emotional connection to the characters, even if the Taper was a more hospitable space for this dramatic musical than the Ahmanson. Arden's production, at once intimate and epic, comes through beautifully nonetheless on the larger stage. 'Parade,' which delves into antisemitism, systemic bias in our judicial system and the power of a wily demagogue to stoke atavistic hatred for self-gain, has a disconcerting timeliness. But the production — momentous in its subject matter, human in its theatrical style — lets the contemporary parallels speak for themselves. Ben Platt, who played Leo, and Micaela Diamond, who played Leo's wife, Lucille, made this Broadway revival sing in the most personally textured terms. For the tour, these roles are taken over by Max Chernin and Talia Suskauer. Both are excellent, if less radiantly idiosyncratic. The modesty of their portrayals, however, subtly draws us in. Chernin's Leo is a cerebral, Ivy League-educated New Yorker lost in the minutiae of his factory responsibilities. A numbers man more than a people person, he's a fish out of water in Atlanta, as he spells out in the song 'How Can I Call This Home?' 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Ramone Nelson, who plays Jim Conley, a Black worker at the factory who is suborned to testify against Leo, delivers the rousing 'Blues: Feel The Rain Fall,' a chain gang number that electrifies the house despite the defiance of a man who, having known little justice, has no interest in defending it. Conley has been sought out by Governor Slaton (a gently authoritative Chris Shyer), who has reopened the investigation at Lucille's urging only to uncover contradictions and inconsistencies in the case. He's one of the more noble figures, however reluctant, married to a woman (a vivid Alison Ewing) who won't let him betray his integrity, even if it's too little, too late. Hugh Dorsey (Andrew Samonsky), the prosecuting attorney preoccupied with his future, has no regrets after railroading Leo in a politicized trial that will cost him his life. 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The musical never loses sight of poor Mary Phagan (Olivia Goosman), a flighty underage girl who didn't deserve to be savagely killed at work. It's exceedingly unlikely that Leo had anything to do with her murder, but the show doesn't efface her tragedy, even as it reckons with the gravity of Leo's. When Chernin's Leo raises his voice in Jewish prayer before he is hanged, the memory of a man whose life was wantonly destroyed is momentarily restored. His lynching can't be undone, but the dignity of his name can be redeemed and our collective sins can be called to account in a gripping musical that hasn't so much been revived as reborn.

Boston Globe

2 days ago

• Boston Globe

Today in History: June 19, Union troops arrive in Galveston on ‘Juneteenth'

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3 days ago

10 years after Charleston church massacre, faith leaders lament that the country hasn't changed

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