Question regarding Scottsboro Boys

Could anyone who saw the show tell me if the black actors in the show also wore blackface makeup?

Updated On: 5/26/12 at 12:41 PM

The finale was one of the most chilling (and thrilling) things I've ever seen in a theater. I loved that show.

I know the question has already been answered, but I will also say that the final moments of The Scottsboro Boys are some of the most chilling and exciting I've ever witnessed in a theater. The whole show was wonderful, but the ending has really stuck with me the most. It was a really haunting and brilliant way to end the piece.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but as I recall, for the final number John Cullum began by narrating and we found out what happened to each of the boys. All nine actors playing the Scottsboro Boys appeared in blackface in the final song and it was a very striking moment when they all revealed this to the audience at once while coming forward and singing.

And then the very final moment of the show involved the black woman (I cannot remember who the Broadway actress was at the moment) who had previously not spoken and had just been observing the action coming forward. John Cullum asked her to move to the back of the bus and she refused, which of course revealed her as Rosa Parks.

It was just a very well-engineered theatrical moment, and sort of brought everything together, at least for me. They had spent the last 90 minutes or so telling this story that is rife with injustice and racism, and then ended the show with the thing that sparked the Montgomery bus boycott, which in turn really jumpstarted the African-American civil rights movement in the 1950s. And the blackface in the final number was really striking, because we saw these young men who had been so abused by the American justice system being turned into these cartoonish stereotypes of themselves. They really took that awful stereotype that was the basis of the minstrel show and used it to conclude this story about a really terrible and often ignored bit of American history.

I don't know if I'm explaining it properly, but it really is an image that haunts me to this day...it was just a brilliantly executed moment.

Updated On: 5/23/12 at 03:03 PM

The production I saw earlier this year in Philadelphia eliminated the black face, although the actors pretended to wipe it off throughout one particular song(which kind of made no sense if you hadn't seen the show before).

Not sure what they're doing regarding the black face in the current production at The Old Globe (corrected).

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Updated On: 5/23/12 at 03:50 PM

Phew. Thanks, DottieD'Luscia. I only saw the show in Philly and was sitting here trying to remember blackface. The ending was so powerful as it was -- I'm trying to think how the blackface would have made it even more effective. I got the idea and the power of the minstrel show sterotypes throughout and not sure why it needed to be embellished even more at the end.
By the way, although much of the cast was the Broadway one, Ron Holgate was wonderful as Interlocutor.

Patash, since you saw the show in Philly, did you realize what they were doing when they were rubbing their faces? I felt that the impact of actual blackface was lost when they were miming the removal of it.

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Not sure what they're doing regarding the black face in the current production at La Jolla.

This production is not at the La Jolla Playhouse, but at the Old Globe which is in Balboa Park in San Diego. Seeing it on May 30th :)

A standard phrase in the old minstrel shows was "Gentlemen, be seated." The interlocutor would say it as a transition between segments of the show, and the performers would sit on command. On Broadway, the phrase was used more than once in SCOTTSBORO, with the men obeying. The final minstrel sequence had all the men come out in minstrel costumes, complete with blackface, for the first time. When the interlocutor said "Gentlemen, be seated," at that time, they hesitated and then ignored him. They walked quietly off, removing parts of the costumes and the blackface as they left. It was a stunning moment. Then, at the very end Rosa Parks is ordered to stand and says she'll just stay seated. The "be seated" image goes from a racist entertainment cliche to a civil rights milestone.

Scottsboro Boys was one of the most satisfying theatrical experiences of my life. I was truly saddened by its short b'way life.

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Scottsboro Boys No Minstrel Show!

You know, I think I still have one of those fliers somewhere...

The blackface was also a poignant commentary on the use of the Scottboro Boys by the white public. They were hated by the South, used as a movement vehicle for more liberal northerners, and then eventually sent out on the Vaudeville circuit to be gawked at. The use of the blackface makeup was absolutely vital and moving, and though the piece as a whole is wonderful regardless of whether or not the blackface makeup is used, having seen it on Broadway, I can't imagine the ending any other way. It was incredibly moving. I've studied the traditions of blackface for many years as part of my theatrical training, but it wasn't until the finale of this show that the true reality and impact of that tradition really struck a chord deep within me. I basically started weeping and couldn't stop. I couldn't even tell other people about it for weeks afterward without having tears come to my eyes yet again. That to me is the ultimate of what a live theatrical experience can be!

What is interesting is that Black actors would often use burnt cork to darken their complexions while on stage during that era. They were not "Black" enough to the white theatre going audience.

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