Review Roundup: THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS in LA

"The Scottsboro Boys" opened on May 29th at the Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre at the Los Angeles Music Center and runs through June 30, 2013.

Five-time Tony Award-winner Susan Stroman reprises her direction and choreography for this exclusive engagement of "The Scottsboro Boys," which has music and lyrics by John Kander and Fred Ebb and book by David Thompson.

The cast features Gilbert L. Bailey II, David Bazemore, Ayanna Berkshire, Shavey Brown, Christopher James Culberson, Joshua Henry, Trent Armand Kendall, Max Kumangai, Hal Linden, JC Montgomery, Justin Prescott, Clinton Roane, Cedric Sanders, Deandre Sevon, Christian Dante White and C. Kelly Wright.

"The Scottsboro Boys" has set design by Beowulf Boritt, costume design by Toni-Leslie James, lighting design by Ken Billington and sound design by Jon Weston. The production stage manager is Evangeline Rose Whitlock.Tickets for "The Scottsboro Boys" are available at www.CenterTheatreGroup.org, the CTG box office located at the Ahmanson Theatre, or by calling (213) 972-4400.

Let's see what the critics had to say:

Robert Hofler of Variety writes: One could make a case for using the minstrel show format to help depict the atmosphere of degradation in which these men lived. In "The Scottsboro Boys," book writer David Thompson turns that concept on its head, and has his nearly all African-American cast play the racist white ladies, judges and sheriffs. Unfortunately, what Thompson's script never does is show us why anyone would ever have found a minstrel show entertaining in the first place. This material isn't just racist, it's downright dreadful. From the get-go, we feel superior to the routines, then bored, then resentful of having to sit through them.

Charles McNulty of the LA Times writes: The show, which opened Wednesday at the Ahmanson Theatre, is a sophisticated knockout, a musical for those who like their razzle-dazzle with a radical, unsentimental edge. The subject matter is the opposite of upbeat, but "The Scottsboro Boys" reminds us that remembrance can be a kind of redress, that not letting evil escape into oblivion can be a partial victory.

The Hollywood Reporter writes: The Interlocutor (Hal Linden, in Southern colonel drag) makes a patronizingly benign emcee, importuning his adjutants, Mr. Bones (Trent Armand Kendall) and Mr. Tambo (JC Montgomery), and the chorus line of "boys" arrayed in a semi-circle to perform their stereotypical buffooneries and athletically accomplished dancing (his favorite, their cakewalk, under director-choreographer Susan Stroman's ministrations, is admirably high-stepping). Today, however, the troupe wants to tell their own story, the truth for once, to which the Interlocutor graciously accedes ("Ah yes, a tale tale...").

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