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An idea that's off the rails
Kander & Ebb's "Scottsboro Boys' by PTC (2nd review)
Jackie Schifalacqua
In 1931, following an altercation between white and black itinerants riding on a freight train near Scottsboro, Alabama, police arrested nine black teenagers. Also on the train seeking employment were two white women, who accused the nine of rape.
In our more enlightened times, these guys and their accusers would be sparring on a Jerry Springer Show. But back in the Jim Crow South, this was no laughing matter. The nine youths were quickly tried and found guilty. The penalty was death.
Somewhere in the hidden recesses of their egos, the Broadway musical team of John Kander and Fred Ebb (Cabaret, Chicago, etc.) thought the horrific details of this tragedy would make a keen concept for an old-time minstrel act. Why? Who knows?
Don't get me wrong. This production of The Scottsboro Boys is classic Kander and Ebb in all of its show-stopping routines, with its snappy tap dance numbers and rousing cakewalk strutting.
"'Old smoky'
But as I sat through the scintillating showstopper, "Electric Chair"— in which the guards taunt the youngest of the convicted "boys," 13-year-old Eugene, with the prospects of burning— I caught myself. Then, as two other convicts (Charlie and Isaac) are mockingly fried under "old smoky" and hanged as well, my skin crawled. The whole experience was creepy.
The minstrel show as an American art form was first popularized in the 1840s, when white men donned black faces and essentially lampooned slaves. The idea of using this format ironically has its merits, but not for the disturbing subject of incarceration and death.
What next?
If Kander and Ebb applied their artistic talents and the minstrel format to, say, the Alabama freedom marches of the '60s— which, despite hosings and dog bites, did end happily after all) the satire and punning expended by this most talented of casts could be used for edification and enjoyment.
What can we expect next from American musical theater? I Am A Fugitive From a Chain Gang as a musical comedy? A Cabaret about adolescents at Auschwitz? Prison guards and inmates doing the polka en route to the gas chamber? For creative minds, the possibilities are endless.♦
To read another review by Marshall Ledger, click here.
To read anther review by Steve Cohen, click here.
To read another review by Dan Rottenberg, click here.
To read another review by Jonathan M. Stein, click here.
In our more enlightened times, these guys and their accusers would be sparring on a Jerry Springer Show. But back in the Jim Crow South, this was no laughing matter. The nine youths were quickly tried and found guilty. The penalty was death.
Somewhere in the hidden recesses of their egos, the Broadway musical team of John Kander and Fred Ebb (Cabaret, Chicago, etc.) thought the horrific details of this tragedy would make a keen concept for an old-time minstrel act. Why? Who knows?
Don't get me wrong. This production of The Scottsboro Boys is classic Kander and Ebb in all of its show-stopping routines, with its snappy tap dance numbers and rousing cakewalk strutting.
"'Old smoky'
But as I sat through the scintillating showstopper, "Electric Chair"— in which the guards taunt the youngest of the convicted "boys," 13-year-old Eugene, with the prospects of burning— I caught myself. Then, as two other convicts (Charlie and Isaac) are mockingly fried under "old smoky" and hanged as well, my skin crawled. The whole experience was creepy.
The minstrel show as an American art form was first popularized in the 1840s, when white men donned black faces and essentially lampooned slaves. The idea of using this format ironically has its merits, but not for the disturbing subject of incarceration and death.
What next?
If Kander and Ebb applied their artistic talents and the minstrel format to, say, the Alabama freedom marches of the '60s— which, despite hosings and dog bites, did end happily after all) the satire and punning expended by this most talented of casts could be used for edification and enjoyment.
What can we expect next from American musical theater? I Am A Fugitive From a Chain Gang as a musical comedy? A Cabaret about adolescents at Auschwitz? Prison guards and inmates doing the polka en route to the gas chamber? For creative minds, the possibilities are endless.♦
To read another review by Marshall Ledger, click here.
To read anther review by Steve Cohen, click here.
To read another review by Dan Rottenberg, click here.
To read another review by Jonathan M. Stein, click here.
What, When, Where
The Scottsboro Boys. Music and lyrics by John Kander and Fred Ebb; book by David Thompson; Susan Stroman’s original direction and choreography recreated by Jeff Whiting. Philadelphia Theatre Company production through February 19, 2012 at Suzanne Roberts Theatre, 480 S. Broad St. (at Lombard). (215) 985-0420 or www.philadelphiatheatrecompany.org.
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