THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS (@ SpeakEasy Stage, extended through Nov.
26th) is one of Kander & Ebb’s last musicals together, Fred Ebb
having died in 2004. THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS received 12 Tony nominations but that
didn’t keep it from closing. You see, it’s a scathing indictment of our
American past, when nine innocent Black teens were accused and convicted of
rape in 1931. If that reminds you of something, it’s probably the five innocent
Black and Latino teens accused and convicted of the “Central Park rape” in 1989,
who were eventually freed and completely absolved of any involvement—only to be accused again by Donald
Trump in 2016, as an example of our pressing need for his racist brand of “Law
and Order.”
People don’t much like revisiting instances of racial
injustice. It makes them uncomfortable or outright horrified to be reminded
that people will go along with atrocity and not speak up, which is the searing
point of Kander and Ebb’s brilliant CABARET. Just like the sardonic emcee in
CABARET, THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS has a menacing “Interlocutor” (Russell Garrett as
the racist “master of ceremonies”) to introduce the vaudeville numbers and
reinforce the spurious stereotypes.
David Thompson’s Tony winning book for the musical sets the
action in a minstrel show about dubious “Dixie Justice.” Two comic “endmen,” (Maurice
E. Parent and Brandon G. Green) trade jokes and play various villains, like the
bowlegged white sheriff who arrests the nine and the corrupt Southern judge who
locks them away. Two of the defendants (Darrell Morris, Jr. and Isaiah
Reynolds) also play their accusers, two white prostitutes who, to avoid arrest,
claim they were raped by the Black men. While their exaggerated portrayals are genuinely
funny, the situation is anything but. It’s a difficult balance that director
Paul Daigneault and company navigate perfectly.
De’Lon Grant gives a powerful, standout performance as the righteous
defendant who, unlike the others, will not accept a plea bargain (“Make Friends
With The Truth”) to get out of prison. The actual Scottsboro nine were tried
and retried many times, the case(s) reaching the Supreme Court with little
redress. Not until three years ago, long after their deaths, were the nine officially
exonerated by the state of Alabama.
This being a musical, we’re treated to some stunning footwork
designed by Ilyse Robbins (after Susan Stroman’s original choreography) and
some stellar show-stopping, mainly from Grant (“Commencing in Chattanooga”) and
from Reynolds (“Never Too Late”), but that said, music director Matthew Stern
gets wonderful singing from the whole ensemble. You won’t leave humming any of
the songs but you won’t forget them. Bravo SpeakEasy, for rescuing another
important work—and giving us the
chance here in Boston
to see THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS.
