”History begins in tragedy and ends in farce.” The saying pretty much sums up the essence of The Scottsboro Boys,the slick new musical by Kander & Ebb which just opened at the Ahmanson after productions in New York, San Francisco and San Diego. Based on the 1931 true story of nine young Black men wrongly accused and convicted of raping two white girls in Scottsboro, Alabama, the musical dramatizes the event by poking fun at it, in a savagely satirical way.
Kander & Ebb, with the help of director/choreographer Stroman, have taken the show trial of the framed Scottsboro boys, who were quickly sentenced to death by an openly racist judge and jury, and turned it into a minstrel show replete with a white Interlocutor (Hal Linden) and his tambourine-shaking sidekicks, Mr. Bones (Trent Armand Kendall) and Mr. Tambo (J. Montgomery). The defendants become part of the show themselves, singing and dancing to such songs as “Southern Days” and “Chain Gang.” They additionally impersonate a rogue’s gallery of other characters: sheriffs, attorneys, women, preachers and politicians.
Mr. Tambo also takes on the role of the white lawyer (Samuel Leibowitz, hired by the Communist Party) who helped save four of the Scottsboro boys by appealing their convictions. Denied pardons or even parole, most of the boys spent nearly two decades in prison. Some died there, others finally walked free and, in the case of Haywood Patterson (Joshua Henry), wrote an autobiographical book (in 1950). It wasn’t until April of this year that the state of Alabama officially pardoned the Scottsboro Boys.
Using the stereotypical conventions of a coon show to attack an inglorious travesty of justice might have backfired in lesser creative hands. But Kander & Ebb’s score is so sharp and telling, so clever and tuneful, that it’s hard to be churlish about The Scottsboro Boys. Stroman must be credited, as well, for her crisp, expert direction and choreography; she really makes the story fly.
As for the sixteen-person cast, it performs in dynamic, flawless fashion – led by Henry as the deeply suffering, always-yearning Haywood Patterson.
