March 13, 2010 - THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS: The Reviews - John Kander & Fred Ebb’s new musical, THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS, directed and choreographed by Susna Stroman, opened Off-Broadway March 10 and here are excerpts from some of the reviews it got.

"Based on the true story of nine men falsely accused of raping two white women on a train traveling through Alabama in 1931, the inventive, consistently thought-provoking musical is performed as if it were a traveling minstrel show, presided over by the white Interlocutor (a winningly smarmy John Cullum), who has at his disposal an 11 member African-American ensemble. The company is led by Mr. Bones (Colman Domingo) and Mr. Tambo (Forrest McClendon), who play a variety of the Caucasian men who figure prominently in the Scottsboro case. The balance of the company members play the accused men as well as the ancillary characters during their ordeal...

“The production, guided with elegant simplicity by director-choreographer Susan Stroman, unfolds with rapid fluidity on a stage that scenic designer Beowulf Boritt outfits with a dozen chairs and a few boards, which are inventively rearranged to represent a variety of locations. And, as lit by designer Kevin Adams, the illusion of shifting from boxcar to jail cell to sun-filled courtroom is complete.

The score, which references cakewalks, New Orleans jazz, and gospel, may be one of the songwriting team's jauntiest and most instantly accessible. The lyrics, filled with cutting barbs about the legal system and the racism the men encounter, often surprise, particularly in their ability to reveal humor in even the saddest situations, such as in "Electric Chair," in which the youngest of the accused (a remarkable Cody Ryan Wise) imagines his demise; this sequence is also a highpoint of Stroman's inventive choreographic work.”
in Theatremania.com by Andy Propst

“It is a sad but certain truth that for pure entertainment value guilt nearly always trumps innocence. Should you require incontrovertible evidence of this basic law of show business, take a look at the new musical from the fabled songwriting team of John Kander and Fred Ebb, which opened Wednesday night at the Vineyard Theater. This solemn, virtuous enterprise is called “The Scottsboro Boys,” and it wears its halo like a barbed-wire hat...

The minstrel-flavored routines that propel the narrative tend to lack the sharp, savvy ear of Kander and Ebb’s period pastiche numbers in earlier musicals (or the wit of Ms. Stroman’s winking choreography for “The Producers”). And you may find yourself thinking of more trenchant and imaginative use of minstrel-show devices by other artists, including the Wooster Group (with its black-face “Emperor Jones”) and Kara Walker (whose cut-out paper silhouettes are brought to mind by a shadow-play sequence)...

With “Scottsboro” it is as if the events on which it is based are still too raw and upsetting to be treated with too much panache. Though it features some high-kicking dancing from its personable and industrious ensemble, this production gives the impression of always treading carefully, with furrowed brow, stooped shoulders and an accusatory glare.”
in The New York Times by Ben Brantley

“If you see one show this season, make it “The Scottsboro Boys.” It’s as simple as that.
And what an unlikely triumph it is...

...“The Scottsboro Boys” is a masterwork, both daring and highly entertaining, and director/choreographer Susan Stroman (“The Producers”) has given it the best production possible at the intimate Vineyard Theatre. The book (by David Thompson), score and staging are so organically linked, you can’t imagine one without the others.

The stroke of genius -- and the word feels right here -- was to stage the piece like a traditional minstrel show with an all-black cast, save for John Cullum.
Using only some chairs to suggest a train, a jail and a courtroom, Stroman follows minstrel conventions to tell the story. Juxtaposing deep emotions and often exaggerated gestures, she creates a mood that feels straight out of Brecht and Weill.

Paradoxically, this makes the piece feel incredibly modern. It’s certainly more provocative than most self-consciously “edgy” rock musicals, as the creative team and its fearless, irreproachable ensemble constantly push the audience to the brink of discomfort -- while dishing out one catchy number after another.

There’s nothing Kander and Ebb won’t dare to do as they explore pet issues such as justice as spectacle and the corruption of the American dream. Here, they apply their signature musical style to some stupefying scenes in which razzle-dazzle rubs elbows with tragedy. An electric-chair dream sequence crackles with gallows humor; a New York lawyer’s arrival is heralded with a song about “Jew money.”

And that’s nothing compared to the final, jolting number. It’ll leave you shaking -- and exhilarated.”
in The New York Post by Elisabeth Vincentelli

“Director and choreographer Susan Stroman, who learned about staging a taste-challenged musical with “The Producers,” is in top form here. “The Scottsboro Boys” is framed as a minstrel show, with Cullum playing the supercilious Interlocutor and a company of extraordinary dancer-singers telling the story, written by David Thompson.

With little more than ragged costumes, a handful of straight-back chairs and a few planks and curtains (the minimalist costumes and set are by Toni-Leslie James and Beowulf Boritt, respectively), Stroman fills the tiny Vineyard stage with razor-sharp vaudeville dancing and, with musical director David Loud, soaring music, some of Kander and Ebb’s best...

Presented without intermission, “The Scottsboro Boys” flies by, before ending with an unnecessary coda that I hope will be fixed before the all but inevitable move to Broadway.”
in bloomberg.com by Jeremy Gerard

“Let’s get right to the point. “The Scottsboro Boys” is a staggeringly inventive piece of musical theater.

Its intentions are serious, its execution pretty much pitch perfect, and its entertainment value — featuring what is the final score by John Kander and Fred Ebb — of the highest order...

... under the inspired direction and choreography of Susan Stroman, such minstrel conventions as the interlocutor (sort of a Dixie-tinged master of ceremonies) and two comic sidekicks called “endmen” are put to good use in conveying the story told by book writer David Thompson.

What makes “The Scottsboro Boys” so intriguing is the dichotomy between its supremely melodic score and the tragic if sometimes convoluted tale the musical is telling.

Kander and Ebb know how to make a song work in the theater — propelling the plot or revealing character — that immediately engages an audience.

Kander’s melodies are effortless, pouring out in a variety of styles from cakewalk to folk ballad to comic ditty. Ebb died in 2004, but his clear, precise and often quite funny lyrics have been finished by Kander, and the transitions are seamless...

...The show is scenically spare, but the lack of clutter gives Stroman more room to maneuver on the small Vineyard stage. A lineup of chairs — plus maybe a few tambourines — are all she needs to get “The Scottsboro Boys” to move.”
in SFGate by Michael Kuchwara

“In addition to riveting material and toe-tapping songs shot through with wry humor, the Vineyard Theater premiere also benefits from a tremendously talented cast of song-and-dance men, from music director David Loud’s luscious vocal arrangements, and from the muscular staging of directorchoreographer Susan Stroman, working at the top of her game...

Every song has a purpose, and even in the most buoyant explosions of Stroman’s period-flavored choreography, dance is fully integrated into narrative in a show that packs dazzling physicality onto a small stage...

Styled in a brassy 1930s musical vernacular and played by a band of eight, the songs are the catchiest bunch to come along in a new tuner in years. “Commencing in Chattanooga” simulates the propulsive rhythm of train travel; “Southern Days” plasters a subversive smile over its paean to a lopsided world of white privilege and black subservience; “Electric Chair” combines tap and sizzle to macabre effect; “Shout!” is a sadly hollow celebration of freedom; and “Financial Advice” is a hilariously un-PC vamp about the convenience of “Jew money.” The latter number is among the high points as performed by the marvelous Domingo.”
in Variety by David Rooney

March 6, 2010 - A Look At THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS - "John Cullum, Brandon Victor Dixon and Colman Domingo star in Susan Stroman's world-premiere staging of the John Kander, Fred Ebb and David Thompson musical THE SCOTTOSBORO BOYS Off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre.

Stroman (Young Frankenstein, Contact, Steel Pier) directs and choreographs the musical that features music and lyrics by Kander and the late Ebb (Cabaret, Chicago, Flora The Red Menace) with a book by Thompson. The piece, billed as a "new musical", was one of the final collaborations from the acclaimed songwriting team before Ebb's death in 2004.

According to press notes, THE SCOTTOSBORO BOYS "explores the famous 'Scottsboro' case of the 1930s — in which a group of young African American teenagers were unjustly accused of attacking two women — and the boys' attempts to prove their innocence."

Tickets to The Scottsboro Boys at The Vineyard Theatre, 108 East 15th Street, are available by calling (212) 353-0303 or on the web at VineyardTheatre.org

in Playbill On-Line by Krissie Fullerton

According to Richard “In those days, Susan was still a student at the University of Delaware and I was a public school teacher whose evenings were spent being a character actor in regional community and dinner theaters. Susan was obsessed dancing. When she wasn’t onstage, she was usually off in a corner trying out tap steps with several other cast members – namely Debbie Bouma, Scott Newborn and Rick Ginn. The four of them would move in unison while Sue spoke that “Step, Ball, Change” dance language of hers softly, yet rhythmically, to them.

The cast spent a lot of time together over four months – we rehearsed during December 1973 and early January 1974. On production nights, we’d go through the dinner theater line and have our evening meal together before the show and after the show go out for a nightcap or party before heading home. That continued until the show closed in March”.

On the Summer of 74, Susan and her friend Debbie Bouma visited California, where they attended a taping of Johnny Carson’s TONIGHT SHOW, although in that day Carson was replaced by Joey Bishop. They “sat in the front row wearing their tap shoes. He spotted them, actually asked them their names and they danced a couple of steps and got some applause. It was broadcast nationally!” I would love to see this someday.

While still in California, ”they attended an on-location night shooting for the movie THE TOWERING INFERNO. They became crowd extras (uncredited of course) in the scenes showing the public watching the fire as the fire engines arrive.” I guess the next time I see THE TOWERING INFERNO I’ll try to locate Susan among the extras.

During those days, back in New York, it seems that Susan and Debbie went to Fisherman ’s Wharf, where they danced and picked up tips from the crowd. Who would have guessed that one day Susan would be such a great name on Broadway.

Thanks Richard for all these information and for the pictures.

by Jorge / photo © Richard Mullin & Fr. Coppinger (the color one)