‘The Scottsboro Boys’ is Powerful, Provocative
BY MARK KENNEDY, The Associated Press, ABC News John Kander and Fred Ebb have managed to turn some of the darkest themes into brilliant musicals: Nazis ("Cabaret"); Latin America repression ("Kiss of the Spider Woman"); and the dancing murderers of the Cook County jail ("Chicago"). Now Kander and Ebb have transformed another horrific tale into a powerful and provocative musical with "The Scottsboro Boys," based on the real story of nine black teenagers charged with raping two
The Scottsboro Boys’ theatre review
BY THOM GEIER, Entertainment Weekly The appearance of a new musical by John Kander and Frank Ebb, the famed composer/lyricist team behind such landmark works as Cabaret and Chicago, is a cause for rejoicing. (Especially since Ebb died in 2004.) True to form, the duo's final collaboration, The Scottsboro Boys, takes a real-life subject that does not seem an obvious candidate for musical adaptation: the plight of nine African American men who were arrested off a train in Scotts
Great ‘Scot’! A classic
BY ELISABETH VINCENTELLI, The New York Post John Kander and Fred Ebb have given American musical theater a pair of un disputable, stone- cold classics, "Cabaret" and "Chicago." Now they've added a third one to the list: "The Scottsboro Boys," which opened last night on Broadway. Completed by Kander after Ebb's death in 2004, it's an archetype of the pair's MO: a boldly stylized, defiantly razzle-dazzle look at true events that underscore the bankruptcy of institutions and the
‘Scottsboro Boys’ Tell Their Own Story on Broadway
BY JEFF LUNDEN, National Public Radio A new musical called “The Scottsboro Boys” just opened on Broadway, and though it boasts a score by John Kander and Fred Ebb, the showbiz legends who created Cabaret and Chicago, it's still a tall order — a musical about one of the most shameful episodes in American racial history. There are plenty of theater fans who wonder if such a grim story can be made into a popular entertainment. On a recent Saturday afternoon, the pavement outside
