1950s Florida murder case inspires world premiere musical at Westcoast Black Theatre

The COVID pandemic forced a four-year delay for Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe to present the world premiere of its first original musical, created by founder and Artistic Director Nate Jacobs and several collaborators.

On Feb. 28, after two previous efforts were canceled because of COVID, audiences will finally get to see “Ruby,” a musical based on a true story from 1952 in Live Oak, Florida. It gives voice to Ruby McCollum, whom Jacobs describes as “a strong Black Florida woman” who stood up for herself in 1952 when she shot and killed a white doctor and rising politician who had forced her into a sexual relationship and fathered two of her children.

What is most surprising to Jacobs and several cast members is that Ruby wasn’t sentenced to life or death as might have been expected of a Black woman at the time. Ruby was a businesswoman herself, who helped her husband run a gambling operation, and the knowledge she had about those placing bets along with law enforcement friends she paid off for protection, helped her survive.

The musical that begins performances next week is vastly different than the one that was two weeks into rehearsals in 2020 when it was shut down. It was revised even further after a 2022 attempt that was undone by a COVID outbreak among cast members.

“It’s extraordinarily different,” said Larry Alexander, who has watched the show develop through workshops and rehearsals over the last few years. He plays Dr. C. Leroy Adams. “I’m guessing about 75 percent of the score is new and the book has been rewritten. It keeps evolving.”

Even during rehearsals, cast members are able to speak up and make suggestions to Jacobs, who also is directing the production.

“Nate is such a visionary. He can switch things up on his feet,” said Ashley Elizabeth Crowe, a Los Angeles-based actress who makes her WBTT debut as author Zora Neal Hurston, who was commissioned by the Pittsburgh Courier to cover the trial.

Zora Neale Hurston at center stage

Unlike earlier versions of the script, Hurston now serves as the narrator who guides the audience through the story, the events leading up to the shooting and the trial.

Catara Brae, who makes her professional musical debut as Ruby, describes her character as “an ambitious, hard-working dreamer. She has hopes and aspirations but ended up having her dreams tainted by things she wasn’t prepared for.”

Most of those things were triggered by Adams, including the two pregnancies and getting her addicted to drugs.

“I’m almost positive she didn’t expect to shoot and kill anybody,” Brae said. “She went to school for nursing and was quoted as saying she wanted to relieve suffering in the world. She never intended to being associated with inflicting pain.”

Alexander said the shooting was seen as a relief by some in the community and made Ruby a hero to some of her neighbors because Adams was “pretty much a horrible creep his entire life. He lied to get into medical school, graduated at the bottom of his class, forged insurance claims. His father was run out of town for having too many Black children. His daily motivation was stealing and hurting other people.”

All those qualities make Adams "fun to play," Alexander said, acknowledging that “we haven’t staged any of the more violent or sexual things. That will be more intense.”

The shooting and subsequent trial gained national attention because of the coverage by Hurston, an author and journalist who never was able to talk to Ruby because of gag orders in effect from the court.

“She does everything she can to find out about who this woman is, who is the man who she killed, and how did they come to their wealth and what happened,” Jacobs said.

There is no question about whether McCollum killed the doctor, he said.

“She shot him as pure as a Sunday morning,” said Jacobs. “There were witnesses, Black people were sitting in the office, she shot him and walked past the people in the waiting room, went to the car (where her children were waiting) and went home, like she had not done anything.”

Despite the violent act, the musical celebrates her for being “bold enough to stand up for herself, to kick back against the powers that be. Most Black people went along with the injustices, thinking ‘That’s our place. We shouldn’t shake anything up,'” Jacobs said.

Creating an original musical

Jacobs has created numerous musical revues celebrating different styles of music or individual artists, and Michael Jacobs, one of his brothers, has written the book for a few of those shows.

But “Ruby” is the theater’s first original, fully narrative-style musical.

“I have always had a natural gift for musicals and I did a lot of original music when I was a school teacher, doing children’s shows like ‘Rockin’ Down Fairy Tale Lane.’ But this is the first time I have written songs for a story of this size and this is a big, big musical.”

Michael Jacobs wrote the book (with some contributions from Nate) and the lyrics, that were set to music by Nate Jacobs and three others.

Early on, Nate Jacobs started arranging the music that had been written to that point. “I would sing things out that were in my head. The keyboardist helped me take it out of my head and get it into the world,” he said. “I’d be standing by the piano and singing out melodies.”

Brennan Stylez, who briefly served as resident musical director at WBTT, helped, in part, with bringing that music to life, but also contributed his own.

In the end, Jacobs, Stylez, Nehemiah Luckett and Antonio Wimberly are credited with the score, while Luckett and music director Dan Wells, created arrangements and orchestrations. Well will be leading the live musicians during performances and is working with a cast of about 20 in preparing the musical elements.

Jacobs said a lot of trimming and revising went on over the last few years. Characters that were central to earlier versions have been either eliminated or reduced.

Alexander said the extra time helped sharpen the show.

“It’s kind of like it needed to wait,” he said. “I’m not saying that because I’m in it now, but it had to wait until it got this version together and this group and this cast, with our new writers and orchestrators and arrangers. I think it’s really got legs.”

‘Ruby’

Book by Nate Jacobs and Michael Jacobs, lyrics by Michael Jacobs, music by Nate Jacobs, Nehemiah Luckett, Brennan Stylez and Antonio Wimberly. Directed by Nate Jacobs. Feb. 28-April 7, Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe, 1012 N. Orange Ave., Sarasota. Tickets are $50, $20 for students and active military and $40 for previews. 941-366-1505; westcoastblacktheatre.org

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Original musical takes Westcoast Black Theatre stage after long delay