2010′s Musical Thoughts #5- The Scottsboro BoysThe Scottsboro Boys opened on Broadway on Octob
2010′s Musical Thoughts #5- The Scottsboro BoysThe Scottsboro Boys opened on Broadway on October 31st, 2010. Created by the legendary John Kander and Fred Ebb, this is the tragically true story of the titular Scottsboro Boys, nine black teenagers (ages 13 to 20), who were falsely accused of raping two white women on a train travelling between Chattanoga and Memphis, Tennessee on March 25th, 1931. The show (primarily centered on one of the accused men Haywood Patterson), mostly follows the boys as they wait in prison for a chance at justice, with every glimmer of hope leaving as soon as it arrived. The show is also presented in the style of the racist Minstrel Shows of the early 20th Century, featuring a white Interlocutor running the show, the Scottsboro Boys being forced to sing and dance, and two black sidekicks to the Interlocutor (Mr. Bones and Mr. Tambo), who would use whiteface and blackface throughout the show to play other characters (such as the two women and prison guards). The score is comprised of the style of music that Kander and Ebb previously made iconic with shows such as Chicago and Cabaret, with fun vaudeville melodies that have hidden (or not so hidden) dark intentions. This show is EXTREMELY dark, and has no problem with this. There’s literally a dream tap dance number where the youngest Scottsboro Boy, Eugene, imagines Bones and Tambo telling him about the electric chair. This level of darkness didn’t necessarily sit well with audiences (one critic reported that several people walked out of the performance after the aforementioned song “Electric Chair”), and that is a shame because while the show is more dark than what Broadway is used to, the shock value is meant to make us aware of this part of history that has been swept under the rug. It’s a necessary shock that awakens us to the horrors of the world, as this stuff actually happened and isn’t publicly known. -- source link
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