Theatre News

Exclusive Video: WhatsOnStage goes behind the scenes with The Scottsboro Boys

WhatsOnStage has teamed up with the Young Vic to give theatregoers an exclusive insight into the forthcoming UK premiere of The Scottsboro Boys, Kander and Ebb’s last musical

Editorial Staff
London Off-West End

Ahead of the forthcoming UK premiere of Kander and Ebb’s critically acclaimed musical The Scottsboro Boys, WhatsOnStage.com was given exclusive access to the production’s first week of rehearsal in New York as part of a video partnership with the Young Vic.

The Scottsboro Boys was the last musical co-written by Broadway’s legendary writing partners, John Kander (composer) and Fred Ebb (lyricist), before Ebb’s death in 2004. The UK premiere, which opens at the Young Vic in October, is directed and choreographed by another Broadway legend, Susan Stroman, who also helmed the world premiere at Off-Broadway’s Vineyard Theatre in 2010.

Our exclusive video, which was filmed and edited in New York by WhatsOnStage’s partners at TheaterMania.com, includes interviews with John Kander, Susan Stroman, book writer David Thompson, original US cast members Colman Domingo and Forrest McClendon, along with other members of the company.

The show, which premiered Off-Broadway in 2010, tells the true story of nine young black men, aged between 12 and 19, who were falsely accused of rape by two white women while travelling on a train through Scottsboro, Alabama in the 1930s. Their subsequent trials and appeals, lasting seven years, deeply divided the nation.

The Scottsboro Boys runs in London from 18 October to 23 November 2013 in the Young Vic’s main house.

Check out our gallery of rehearsal pictures below. And look out for: our interview with Scottsboro Boys star Colman Domingo, and more backstage videos from the production in the coming days and weeks!