Los Angeles Times
- Recommended
"...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."
Variety
- Not Recommended
"...With "Scottsboro," it doesn't help that Stroman has pushed her actors, as she did on Broadway, to perform minstrel as if they were in a high-school production, as if egregiously over-the-top bad acting would indicate the genre's inherent awfulness. It's curious how a director could make us laugh at the soulless gay characters in "The Producers" and yet fail to find any humor whatsoever in the soulless white racists on stage here."
LA Weekly
- Recommended
"....From its haunting, memory-play opening to the uplifting poignancy of its final, surprise reveal, John Kander and Fred Ebb's 2010 risk-taking musical retelling of one of the galvanizing episodes of the early civil-rights movement makes for a stirring summation of the songwriting team's 45-year Broadway career."
Edge
- Recommended
"...In a city where standing ovations sometimes feel like obligatory gestures, the prolonged and rapturous response from the Ahmanson's opening-night crowd certified the resonance and sublime entertainment afforded by this exceptional musical, which is a crowning achievement in the incomparable Kander-Ebb career."
Stage and Cinema
- Recommended
"...The most astounding thing about the Scottsboro Boys' story – with its frame-ups, rushed trials, all-white juries, and lynch mobs – is that it has become an original, audacious, and exhilarating (but problematic) new entertainment called The Scottsboro Boys. John Kander, Fred Ebb and librettist David Thompson compacted an intricate series of trials into a one-act musical (1 hour, 45 minutes) that utilizes the antiquated blackface minstrel shows to dramatize a sensational piece of history."
The Hollywood Reporter
- Recommended
"...In the last 25 years or so, what might be called the post-Sondheim period, it has been a lucky year indeed when there appears a major musical of substantial artistic value and with the classical virtues of the form. The unruly yet sophisticated The Scottsboro Boys must be counted one of those cherished few."
LA Splash
- Somewhat Recommended
"....I liked this show and I didn't like this show. All my favorite parts of the production were aesthetic. The storytelling apparatus was solid, but the rendering of the story itself left me unsatisfied. Playing out this story through the guise of puppetry and clowning simply felt like framework to make an ugly story palatable. Even as the characters eventually breakout of that framework, it is not, for me, ultimately satisfying to have made this journey that could have been much more poignant if only the points made in it had not been dulled."
Examiner
- Recommended
"...The musical chronicled the trials, showed the bond these boys developed, and unmasked blind justice that did not give equal justice for all. It was breath taking in its clarity of purpose, its intensity and power. And, it is entertaining. You will take "Scottsboro Boys" home with you. It is "food for thought.""
ArtsInLA
- Recommended
"...The Scottsboro Boys comprises music and lyrics by Cabaret's John Kander and Fred Ebb, book by David Thompson. In the hands of these three, the storytelling is even fiercer than it could be in a documentary."
LA Stage Times
- Recommended
"...And, of course, it's more entertaining than most non-musical plays about the Scottsboro Boys would be. This didn't prevent The Scottsboro Boys from folding rather quickly on Broadway, but that's to the discredit of Broadway, not The Scottsboro Boys. With productions at theaters with built-in subscription audiences, such as Center Theatre Group's at the Ahmanson, the show is likely to find its way to a much broader audience."
OC Register
- Recommended
"...‘Scottsboro Boys' is a fitting farewell for Kander and Ebb."
TheaterMania
- Recommended
"...Such a volatile play requires a stellar cast and the Ahmanson Theatre has been blessed with a band of fearless players."
Culver City News
- Recommended
"....The metatheatrical commentary that takes place in this production is introduced so subtly, it will slap you in the face before you even realize that it's there. It is spectacularly done, both in script and in performance."
Grigware Blogspot
- Not Recommended
"...As a musical, it has it all: great book, great music, sensational cast and director/choreographer. This is theatre you cannot afford to miss!"
LifeInLA
- Recommended
"...This show carries a subject matter that is too disheartening to be entertaining and tries to make it lighthearted. The cast at the Ahmanson executes the steps perfectly– Every note, every nuance performed to perfection. But the style of the show walks the fine line between racism for artistic purpose and plain racism. Sometimes it falls on the opposite side of that line. However, moments of beauty and truth emerge between moments of immaturity and ignorance. The performances of the actors are stirring and masterful. These young men are skilled theater powerhouses, inspirational. If not the feel-good show of the year, The Scottsboro Boys is moving and sometimes fun."
