‘The Scottsboro Boys’ on Broadway

‘The Scottsboro Boys’ is a new musical to recently hit Broadway. The Broadway musical portrays the event in histroy when 9 boys from Scottsboro, Alabama were wrongly accused of raping 2 white women. What makes this Broadway show unique, however, is that it is performed in Minstrel theater style. The minstrel style of theater was originally meant to “debase and sentimentalize slavery”. This style of theater was chosen specifically for the purpose of creating the tone of the era’s racism. As well, an African American actor plays the role of Samuel Leibowitz, the white Jewish lawyer who defends the nine boys in 1931. For the actors in ‘Scottsboro Boys’, who are African American, they must reincarnate this style of theater, while also creating an extremely dramatized, “buffoonish” version of the events of history through the use of language. These bold and innovative ideas were the creations of theater veterans John Kander and Fred Ebb (who passed away in 2004). Kander said to one of his actors about the performance, “You cannot go too far. Just go.” This is exemplified by young actor Jeremy Gumbs, 12 years old, who performs a tap dance titled “Electric Chair” which reveals the disturbing nature in a comic light.

Not all have accepted this style of theater as well as the nature of the show. Actor Colman Domingo, who plays the sheriff and prosecuting lawyer, recalls that a woman once booed him during the show’s run on Off Broadway when he quoted a famous line from the case, “Is justice in this case going to be bought and sold in Alabama with Jew money from New York?” And during its short time on Broadway, there have already been a few walk-outs. In The Amsterdam New‘s review of the show last week, the reporter claims that she was “offended” by the show.

Personally, I think that this is an extremely brilliant idea to weave the racially charged nature of the show with the Minstrel theater style, which creates an ironic, yet eye-opening, tone for the production. Not everyone will accept it, and some will surely find it offensive; however, it is important for Broadway to bring up important events in history through the performances and to be constantly reinventing the meaning of a “good show”.

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