The Scottsboro Boys

Can you feel guilty for laughing and enjoying a Broadway musical? The answer is Yes, if you are watching The Scottsboro Boys. With music and lyrics by Kander and Ebb (Chicago, Cabaret), The Scottsboro Boys is based on the true story of nine young Black men who, in the 1930s, were wrongly accused and convicted of raping two white women.

The story reeks of injustice, bigotry and prejudice. Although one of the alleged victims later recanted, the boys were still found guilty and their lives ruined. It was not until 45 years later, in 1976, that Alabama Governor George Wallace pardoned the last living boy and the case was finally closed. Hardly the subject for music and laughter. Yet sometimes “a spoonful of sugar” is the best way to make a bitter story more palatable.

Set in the framework of a minstrel show, the play features risqué jokes, songs and dances, and even a number done in blackface. Traditionally, the minstrel show began with an Interlocutor (John Cullum) serving as the MC and calling on the performers to tell their stories. Clad in a white suit, the sole white performer, Cullum, is the epitome of the old fashioned, genial and soft-spoken Southern gentleman.

The minstrel show also often incorporated the silly behavior of two stock characters, Mr. Tambo (here played by Forest McClendon) and Mr. Bones (played by Colman Domingo.) They skillfully provide humor using many double entendres, and they play several other characters, including the police and the white lawyers.
The “boys” are led by Joshua Henry as Haywood Patterson, a young man who refuses to lie about the crime even when it means he will be granted parole. Henry is hostile, brooding and intense. He’s also a skillful singer and dancer.