The Scottsboro Boys

Musical (2010)
Music and lyrics by John Kander and Fred Ebb
Book by David Thompson
Original direction and choreography by Susan Stroman

With Darren Bunch (Andy wright), Taavon Gamble (willie Roberson), de’Lon Grant (Haywood Patterson), Sheldon Henry (Roy Wright), Wakeem Jones (Eugene Williams), Steven Martin (Olen Montgomery), Darrell Morris, Jr.) (Charles Weems), Aaron Michael Ray (Clarence Norris), Isaiah Reynolds (Ozie Powell), Maurice Emmanuel Parent (Mr. Bones), Brandon G. Green (Mr. Tambo), Russell Garrett (Interlocutor), Shalaye Camillo (The Lady)

The actual Scottsboro Boys were nine young men who were improperly jailed for a rape they didn’t commit and remained imprisoned for years, despite multiple retrials. The incident raised deep concerns in the North and ultimately became one of the motivating elements of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.

This odd but interesting musical takes through most of its two hours a whimsical and ironic stance on this awful incident, telling it through characters who play minstrel players playing The Scottsboro Boys. Quite intentionally, the whole tenor of the show is strangely off-putting and upsetting, its offhandedly amused musical depictions framing the tragedy. If, at the end, one does not catch the show’s two signficant narrative punch lines, the whole import of these tonally misapplied musical framings may be entirely lost.

One of these punchlines involves the destiny of the only woman in the show who sits silentyly throughout on the sidelines watching the events unfold. Only in the very end does her identity get revealed and we see what she’s been doing there all along. It’s an interesting device but a strangely loaded one that requires sitting through the entire show to get what’s been happening.

The other punchline is about the form of the musical within the musical. Told through minstel show type songs, the entire show within the show has a jocular quality that seems entirely out of place. It’s as though Kander and Ebb had taken to heart the intentionally self-destructive awful-taste approach put forward in Mel Brooks’ The Producers (1968). By paying close attention at the end one sees that is the very point of the show.

However, there is a distinct danger that that signficant point might be lost in the shuffle, in which case the show would merely seem to be a misapplied ironic portrayal of a tragic subject. Imagine a show about the Holocaust done with lively Klezmer music with no explanation or justification. That’s precisely what one is in danger of experiencing in The Scottsboro Boys, until those very crucial ending moments when one hopes that the punchline messages come through.

The staging of this show by director Paul Daigneault is remarkably good. Choreography by Ilyse Robbins and dancing are superb, musical direction by Matthew Stern also very good.

There is some excellent acting. Notably, Maruice Emmanuel Parent as one of the cops is really out there – very histrionic and very good at the same time.

Kander’s and Ebb’s music here is quite reminiscent of their biggest hit Chicago, and a bit too much alike in shade and tone throughout to leave too much of a lasting impression. There are some good numbers, but nothing vividly memorable, at least on a first listening.

The text of the show by David Thompson seems to falter at times, relying repeatedly on silly and obvious jokes. Of course, this too might be intended by the author to be a meta-spoof on the minstrel-show medium, but the lack of clarity of that intent yields an ambiguous and inconsistent result.

Despite the odd tone that prevails throughout and the strange text that keeps rearing its head, the overall message of the show is signficant and comes through if one pays close attention. Riding close to the danger of misinterpretation, the show is narratively risky, but for those who catch its two final punch lines and take them to heart, the effect might well be very potent.

– BADMan