Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department alumni Jerome Riley Jr. ’16 and Jared Grant ’12 are featured in the Chicago premiere of the musical The Scottsboro Boys, running February 3-March 12 at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont, in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood. Also in the cast is current student Izaiah Harris.

Presented in Chicago by Porchlight Music Theatre, the 2010 Broadway musical features a score by composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb, the team who wrote the musicals Cabaret and Chicago. Performed ironically in the style of a 19th-century minstrel show, the show follows the true story and trial of nine African-American teenagers who were falsely accused of raping two white women in 1931 Alabama. The historically important episode is frequently cited as an example of a racist miscarriage of justice in the American legal system.

Riley, a graduate of the Theatre Department’s BFA Program in Musical Theatre Performance, plays 13-year-old Roy Wright, one of the falsely accused youths. Grant, a graduate of the Theatre Department’s BA Program in Musical Theatre, is in the ensemble. Harris, a student in the Musical Theatre BA program, plays Willie Roberson, another one of the wrongly accused youths.

Alex Rhyan ’15, a graduate of the Theatre Department’s BA Program in Theatre, is the show’s production manager.

For tickets, call 773-327-5252 or click here.