By Patricia Morris Buckley | SDUN Reporter 
“The Scottsboro Boys” is one of those musicals that had everything going for it, but didn’t thrive on Broadway. In fact, it only lasted 49 regular performances.
Yet its pedigree is golden: A little known historical event that served as the spark for the civil rights movement, music and lyrics by the legendary John Kander and Fred Ebb of “Cabaret,” “Zorba,” and “Chicago” and direction and choreography by Susan Stroman of “The Producers.”
The Old Globe Theatre is giving these boys a second chance in a production with the same director, creative team and several members of the Broadway cast. With such high caliber acting, direction and design, this show can’t help but pack a major wallop. It’s no wonder that the audience gave the show an instant standing ovation on opening weekend.
“The Scottsboro Boys” is the story of nine black men (some still boys) who were riding the rails near Scottsboro, Alabama in March 1931, when a fight with some white boys drew the attention of the sheriff. The sheriff caught two white women on the freight train, and the script implies they were drunk prostitutes. In order not to get arrested, the women said the nine men raped them.
Of course, that’s a hanging offense in the 1930s South.
The rest of the story follows the many trials they faced, even after one of the women recanted her story. It took six years to free four of the men, while it took much longer for the others. One died in prison. Yet their story rallied and intensified the black community’s drive to change the status quo. One of those following the trial is now iconic Rosa Parks.
The idea of telling the story as a high-stepping, over-the-top minstrel show, based on some of the released men doing the minstrel circuit for a short time after their release, seems inspired at first. Gradually it feels too clownish and unnecessary. The two elements fight each other and the result is as unsatisfactory as the unjust trial results.
The writers also favored telling the intriguing story more with music than with words. The cast handles the music beautifully, but 19 songs in a show without an intermission takes away the remarkable intensity of the brutal story.
The best element in the production is the wildly talented cast. They all have soulful voices and convey their grief and pain vibrantly whether singing or talking. Clifton Duncan’s portrayal of Haywood Patterson is a study in heartbreak as the character insists that the truth will set them free. Nile Bullock, the youngest member of the cast, is an impressive dancer and keeps up with the adults easily.
JC Montgomery plays a variety of characters, but digs deep as the Yankee lawyer who never gives up on freeing the men. Ron Holgate, a Tony Award-winner for the musical 1776, appears frail on stage, but he takes on a variety of white characters, including judges with great authority.
C. Kelly Wright plays a lady who watches the action and we first see her at the beginning, about to board a bus. It’s easy to tell whom she symbolizes. I just wish her character, who is mute until the last few minutes, was more integral to the story we see, not just as a footnote.
Except for the jarring blend of the story and the manner in which it’s told, everything about the production is excellent. It’s a powerful, well-acted piece of theater that audiences will not easily forget. It should receive a better verdict at the Old Globe than it did in New York.
“The Scottsboro Boys”
When: Through June 10
Where: Old Globe Theatre, Balboa Park
Tickets: Start at $39
Info: 619-23-GLOBE
Web: TheOldGlobe.org
