Daring ’Scottsboro Boys’ find home in Philly
"The Scottsboro Boys" was the last musical that John Kander and Fred Ebb ("Cabaret," "Chicago") wrote before Ebb’s death in 2004. But even with this iconic team’s name above the title, this show was a tough sell. Based on a true story, it is set in the segregated South of the 1930s where nine African American young men hop boxcars to find work in another town. After a scuffle with local whites, they are arrested for raping two white women, jailed, tried and convicted 12 days after their arrests.
If this storyline wasn’t daunting enough, Kander and Ebb framed the musical as a minstrel show, using that long antiquated and racist theatrical form for maximum ironic effect. Perhaps because of this, its first production wasn’t on Broadway, but off (at the Vineyard Theatre) in the late winter of 2010 with direction and choreography by Susan Stroman ("The Producers").
First production outside of NYC
Its strong reception from both critics and audiences led to a Broadway production later in the year; but despite good reviews, it couldn’t run out the year, closing after 49 performances. It also became the center of controversy when in November a group picketed outside the Lyceum Theatre (where the musical had opened) to protest "the use of minstrelsy and blackface" that were viewed as "racist." There was a movement to bring the musical back the following Spring, but it failed. Nonetheless, the musical received 12 Tony nominations that May.
Now comes the first post Broadway production of "The Scottsboro Boys" at the Philadelphia Theater Company that features five members of its original New York Cast. Also, the production’s director and choreographer Jeff Whiting was Stroman’s assistant director during the Broadway run.
Much research
Whiting and Derrick Cobey, who created the role of one of the young men (named Andy Wright), spoke about the show at final rehearsals at PTC studios earlier this week.
"I think it was brilliant to make to make this story into a musical theatrical form. You don’t think of this as what would become a musical, but the staging and the concept allows us to see fully what happened and what were the thoughts and emotions of what were going through the minds and hearts of the Scottsboro Boys," Whiting said. "A musical allows you to stop time in the form of a song," he said, "instead of just loading a bunch of facts on audiences."
The actual case of the Scottsboro Boys is considered a catalyst in exposing racial injustice in the American legal system. It galvanized black activists in the 1930s and started to (officially anyway) redress a legal system that was systemically biased against African Americans. Still, to most people, it remains a little-known chapter in American history and a difficult sell to Broadway audiences accustomed to more escapist fare.
In the musical Cobey plays the older brother of the youngest teenager arrested - 13-year old Roy, the only one of the accused to be released from jail because of the implausibility of the charge for a person his age. Andy remained in prison, as did the others, even after the women recanted their stories about being raped. Cobey speaks to the responsibility he felt playing this forgotten man. "He remained in prison and eventually got out, but... they all had a lot of issues from being caged up that long. He eventually got a job as a truck driver through the NAACP. But there wasn’t a good ending for him," Cobey said.
The actor had to work to emotionally detach himself from the impact of the material. "I had to remind myself, I am Andy... protecting his brother Roy. I can’t just be a big mess onstage." The actor said it was very important to all of the actors to tell the story of all of these real men, not just focus on individual roles.
"We did a lot of separate research. We went to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Schonberg Center in Harlem and we had to get out those old microfiche plates to know who these boys were as individuals, and so much was covered up about them. We all took it so personally, but then it was hard not to separate your personal feelings to the boys, rather than just playing the scenes. It was hard to reflect on how sad it was for them, but at the same time you can’t play to that...you have to just play who they are in that real moment on stage," Cobey explained.
Believed in the story
He acknowledged "unique solidarity among the cast. It started with the creative team. Susan Stroman set up an environment that was very safe. She told us that if there was any issue it should be put on the table. From her the rest of the company developed a calmness and collaborative environment. Some of the prison scenes, particularly, are emotionally hard; before every single show, we huddled in costume and it didn’t just mean praying- we could sing or someone would recite a poem by Langston Hughes or someone could just share thoughts. We wanted to make sure that before we went onstage that we had each others’ back," he added.
Cobey said that he was connected to the music and lyrical content of the show immediately, even though it was two white men composing about a painfully real chapter of African American history. "Kander and Ebb and our orchestrator Larry Holkman - were very, very specific about everything they wrote, everything supported, everything we needed. There is that opening number, the throwback to classic vaudeville era and then there’s a song like ’southern days’ a spiritual in nine-part harmony that is so poetic tangible. Or ’Go Back Home.’ a lullaby of hope," Cobey said.
"Stro (Stroman) gives you flash Broadway theater, but with this her storytelling is so clear. I feel like the artistic team and energy at Philadelphia Theater Company, feels like again, a safe place, to explore this piece."
Whiting. who has been with the show in every development of the show from its start, was choreographer to the touring company of "Hair" and a Brazilian production of "Hairspray." He also worked on a number of Disney spectacles and even a musical about Leopold and Loeb.
"This was joyful every single moment, I think because we all believed in this story. I came to the show not knowing it. We wanted to get to the truth of the story and of course working with Stroman, we feel like we could do that. It was so collaborative," he said.
"Likewise here, we have some of the Broadway company, and also have new cast members, who bring other things to it. As we’ve worked through the show- all of the original staging is there- but we’ve tailored some of the choreography for some of the new performers, for instance.
Whiting remains focused also on the actual history case. "This incident was one of the precursors to what became the civil rights movement. These nine Scottsboro Boys, the real ones, were forgotten by history, so from day one, every one of these guys has taken this seriously. We ask them to do difficult things onstage and in the spirit of telling the story and honoring these nine men and the tragedy of what happened to them. And this show lands so beautifully on the side of truth."
"The Scottsboro Boys" runs through February 19, 2012 at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre
480 S. Broad Street (Broad & Lombard Sts.), Philadelphia, PA 19146. For more information, visit the Philadelphia Theatre Company website.
