After four-year wait, Westcoast Black Theatre opens world premiere musical ‘Ruby’
Saturday night marked the opening of arguably the most ambitious project in the 25-year history of the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe – the original musical “Ruby” created by its founder and artistic director Nate Jacobs, his brother Michael and several composing partners.
Nate Jacobs has written, produced and staged many musical revues over the years, but he has never attempted to tell a dramatic story like the one shared in “Ruby.” It’s a mostly sung musical inspired by the true story of Ruby McCollum, a wealthy Black woman (thanks to her husband’s gambling operation) who killed a prominent white doctor and politician in 1952. The story behind that shooting – the gambling racket, the payoffs, her relationship with the doctor who fathered two of her children – is compelling.
The musical promotes Ruby as a hero. One early song tells us, she was “a Negro woman raised in the South, kills a white Southern gentleman and lives to tell about it.” Most people expected she would have been lynched or otherwise killed.
The Jacobs brothers have been working on the show for more than five years, bringing in new collaborators as it developed. They share credit on the book, while Michael wrote the lyrics for nearly four dozen songs composed by Nate Jacobs, Brennan Stylez and Antonio Wimberly, with additional music by Nehemiah Luckett. You can’t tell from the program who wrote which songs, a lively assortment of melodies that touch on gospel, rhythm and blues, Motown, dance numbers and tender ballads.
There is much to compliment about the show, which Nate Jacobs directs, including some enjoyable acting and vocal performances that had some audience members cheering. But the different aspects don’t always come together to create a gripping experience because there’s not enough dramatic thrust in the way the story is told.
COVID delays and revisions
The show was originally scheduled to open in 2020, but was canceled due to the pandemic, and then an outbreak of COVID scuttled a second attempt in 2022.
There apparently have been a lot of revisions over the years, including one that shifted the focus from Ruby to author and reporter Zora Neal Hurston, who was hired by the Pittsburgh Courier to cover the trial and helped give the story some national prominence. Without her reporting, the world might not have known much about Ruby McCollum.
Hurston serves as a narrator, telling the story and including some lightly referenced parallels to her own legal troubles. It’s an interesting idea but not fully developed, perhaps because it seems evident that the writers' focus is still on Ruby herself.
Despite an earnest performance from Ashley Elizabeth Crowe, who interviews just about everybody in Live Oak, Florida, the scenes involving Hurston serve mostly as exposition as she tells us what she learned. It is only when Ruby, played by Catara Brae, is on the stage that we watch events happening, instead of being told about them.
Brae has a powerful voice and an inner strength that gives intensity and confidence to Ruby at a time when Black women would struggle with such an attitude. She and her husband, Sam, became rich and powerful – “highfalutin” in the minds of some of their white neighbors – and were paying off the doctor, the local judge and the sheriff to maintain the business. (It is curious that the same judge oversees her trial.)
Larry Alexander plays Dr. Adams as a suave snake with a thirst for power. He doesn’t get a lot to do, but makes the most of his time so we always feel his presence and detest him. Maurice Alpharicio is a smooth operator as Sam, who idolizes Ruby and they have some sweet moments until the impact of her relationship with the doctor tears them apart.
The cast also includes David Sitler as a seemingly understanding judge, Ben Brandt as a sheriff who is sympathetic to Ruby, and Sieglinda Fox as the McCollum’s housekeeper/assistant, who winds up taking on more than she expected.
Brae gets two emotional ballads, “Breathe” and “Alone,” sung from Ruby’s jail cell, that are standouts in the score. Dan Sander-Wells leads a lively off-stage band that tends to overwhelm the singing – it was often difficult to decipher all the lyrics on opening night. Donald Frison’s choreography effectively establishes the movement, buzz and segregation in the small town. Jeffrey Weber’s set features a couple of wooden, multi-level platforms, that become different locations with the addition of simple furnishings or a projection of a courthouse, a home and tree-lined streets.
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There is some great material here that will keep audiences engaged, though I think “Ruby” needs a bit more development to find the right mix in its storytelling.
But the show also represents quite an achievement for Nate Jacobs, who started this company on a shoestring budget and built it up (with lots of help) to have the kind of financial support to make such a project not just conceivable but so well-produced.
‘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. Reviewed March 2. Through April 7 at Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe, 1012 N. Orange Ave., Sarasota. Tickets are $50, $20 for students and active military. 941-366-1505; westcoastblacktheatre.org
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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Westcoast Black Theatre opens long-delayed original musical ‘Ruby’
