"The Scottsboro Boys" Philadelphia Theater Company

[+ WilliamM]

I missed "The Scottsboro Boys" on Broadway. I liked the orginal cast album of this new Kander and Ebb musical. I was thrilled to finally see it in Philadelphia with many of the original cast members, and "Susan Stroman's original direction and choreography recreated by Jeff Whiting."

 

I loved seeing this musical in a new, relatively small theater with minimum staging. The story of nine teenage Negro boys being arrested in Alabama in the 1930s for jumping on a train and 'raping' two female prostitutes has some very grim moments that are lightened somewhat by the songs. I would place the song, "Go Back Home" with the best of Kander and Ebb.

 

The musical moves so quickly that I missed the back stories for several of the boys arrested, all nine spent many years in jail after numerous trials. My guess is that Stroman wants us to see the boys as a group, not particularly as individual---yet several stand out.

 

Sadly, this production is not part of a national tour (like "Next to Normal" or "American Idiot") and that's a shame.