ABSTRACT
David Thompson, who wrote the book for the musical, telescoped the protracted story into two acts. The Scottsboro Boys explores a serious theme using a show-within-a-show format, a hallmark of Kander and Ebb’s most popular musicals. However, whereas previous shows employed benign genres of popular entertainment (e.g. vaudeville in Chicago), Scottsboro tells its story in the form of a minstrel show—the most racist of popular entertainments in American history. Even without the premiere of Hamilton in 2015, The Visit would likely not have been a commercial hit. After all, it has a European sensibility, one of the bleakest plots in the repertory, and a more operatic score than most contemporary Broadway theatergoers expect to hear. Pierce was barely 30 when Kander approached him. Like Kander, he attended Oberlin College. They met when Kander came to campus to coach some students. Pierce majored in English and, after graduating, moved to New York and performed sketch comedy.
