"Scottsboro Boys" will head to Broadway following 8-week run at the Guthrie

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"SCOTTSBORO BOYS" TO PLAY BROADWAY'S LYCEUM THEATER
FOLLOWING 8-WEEK SUMMER RUN AT THE GUTHRIE

(Minneapolis/St. Paul) Broadway producer Barry Weissler confirmed yesterday that The Scottsboro Boys will play Broadway's Lyceum Theater starting in October, shortly after the show concludes an 8-week summer run at the Guthrie Theater.

The stirring new musical by John Kander and Fred Ebb, the Tony Award-winning creators of Cabaret and Chicago, received its world premiere Off-Broadway at The Vineyard Theatre (Douglas Aibel, Artistic Director; Jennifer Garvey-Blackwell, Executive Director) earlier this year, and has gone on to receive numerous nominations and awards in New York this season. Five-time Tony Award winner Susan Stroman (The Producers, Contact) will return to direct and choreograph the work, which features a book by Tony Award-nominee David Thompson (Steel Pier). Casting and a full creative team for the Guthrie and Broadway runs will be announced shortly.

In a conversation with Playbill.com, the Weisslers said the Guthrie is the next development step for the show prior to Broadway. "It's to hone the work, it's to put the finishing touches on it," producer Barry Weissler told Playbill.com. "We have many, many notes from the Vineyard (run): Little things, tweaking, calibration. A little bit touching the music, not so much. Giving a little better back story to each of the boys, things of that sort."

The last collaboration of the legendary songwriting team of Kander & Ebb explores the infamous "Scottsboro" case of the 1930s, in which a group of African American teenagers was unjustly accused of attacking two white women - and the boys' attempts to prove their innocence. The Scottsboro Boys brings this provocative new work to the stage, depicting one of the most important and notorious chapters in the history of the American Civil Rights movement.

The Scottsboro Boys begins preview performances on July 31, opens August 6 and continues through September 25, 2010. Single tickets start at $29 and are now on sale through the Guthrie Box Office at 612.377.2224, toll-free 877.44.STAGE, 612.225.6244 (Group Sales) and online at http://www.guthrietheater.org/.