To purchase SCOTTSBORO: AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY, click on the image above.

The Vineyard Theatre has announced that it will host a reading of John Kander, Fred Ebb and David Thompson’s The Scottsboro Boys on June 26 at 15:00.

The subject matter of the show – the 1930s “Scottsboro case”, which saw nine young African American teenagers tried for the attack of two women on a freight train – is an interesting choice for a Kander and Ebb musical. I must admit I’d never heard of the case before the musical was announced and reading through some brief summaries of it – well, it’s all rather shocking. Directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman, the reading will feature John Cullum, Brandon Victor Dixon and Colman Domingo in the central roles. Attendance is by invitation-only.

I wonder what the score is like. As for the physical production, with Stroman at the helm, the reading could go either way. She either hits the nail on the head or misses the target completely. I do hope it’s the former. It would be great to see this unproduced Kander and Ebb musical, one of the last projects on which they collaborated before Ebb’s death, come to life.