Wresting Control of the Minstrel Show

One of the largest retinues in Theater Talk history arrived in the Greenroom to talk about and perform a song from the new Kander and Ebb musical, The Scottsboro Boys, at the Vineyard Theatre.

Wait, a musical about the notorious 1931 trial in Scottsboro, Alabama, where two white women accused nine black men of rape? We’ll get to that.

Traipsing into the Greenroom came veteran Broadway composer John Kander; super director-choreographer Susan Stroman (looking very glamorous without the hat she has worn for decades); actors Brandon Victor Dixon and Colman Domingo; pianist Paul Masse and guitarist Greg Utzig; Kander’s assistant “Bone,” Vineyard general manager Reed Ridgley, and press agent Sam Rudy. They all watched Carol Kane and Janeane Garofolo being taped, and then the two shows interviewees all mixed and gabbed and traded compliments. So fun!

Brandon Victor Dixon plays the most outspoken of the nine Scottsboro boys (who were all in their late teens when unjustly accused) and sang a moving ballad from the show, “Go Back Home.”

One fascinating aspect of Stroman’s production is the use of the once-popular American stage entertainment, the minstrel show, to tell the Scottsboro story. At first, the African-American actors were taken aback to hear the new show would be framed this way, but soon came to appreciate how Stroman, Kander and Ebb (the show got started before lyricist Fred Ebb’s death in 2004), and book writer David Thompson used the structure to tell this compelling story in a musical way, and turned the racist form on its head.

All eyes are on this production and whether it has Broadway potential. Judging by the talent and intelligence on display at the Vineyard and in the Theater Talk studio – combined with great word of mouth – we think this show will give the spring theater season a healthy and exciting boost.