A Balanced Production

Photo credit to Rosegg of The Daily News. http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/2010/03/10/2010-03-10_the_scottsboro_boys_new_fred_ebb_musical_is_based_on_alabama_race_case_.html

The only wobbliness in this show was my legs, shaking from nerves because I was seated so high up in the balcony. Other than that, The Scottsboro Boys struck me as an extraordinarily balanced production.

Some scenes tugged at the heart (like when Haywood Patterson, the most outspoken of the nine Scottsboro boys, is thrown into solitary confinement), others poke fun at harsh realities the Black teenagers struggle with (when the youngest of the crew asks so innocently and genuinely what “rape” is, or when one boy relays his account of his cousin being lynched). Though it’s not the kind of musical that will lift the whole audience out of their chairs and have them dancing in the aisles, there is a certain joviality that left me tapping my feet in my own seat way up in the balcony.

Perhaps the greatest thing about this musical is that it presented this most delicate topic with extraordinary care and great talent. The Scottsboro Boys, a most controversial legal case that stands as a symbol of bigotry and racial stereotypes, sits precariously on an onstage seesaw. The actors teeter-totter with keeping the show entertaining and conveying the sense of gravity the topic deserves. In that respect, the directors of Scottsboro do a superb job. They leave most of the racism up to the cast members to relay through speech, and the amusement is mostly accomplished through dance, song, and occasional jokes. Racist comments are balanced with funny scenes to lighten the atmosphere. The actors really set the crowd in motion, causing theatergoers’ “haha”s or “ooo”s. At times, I felt that familiar “oooooh” like OUCH! pierce through the crowd. And at times, I heard laughter. After all, this is a musical about battling racism.

What is most ironic about Scottsboro is that it is a minstrel. “Black-face” has a long tradition in American entertainment as a most effective means of keeping things in perspective, especially appropriate for this Broadway show. Though by the 1950s minstrelsy had nearly disappeared, today it has become a symbol of the past. Scottsboro is a reminder of the harsh racism that existed and perhaps continues to exist on a lesser scale.

What a great show!