A murder case gets musical life at Westcoast Black Theatre
Original creation by troupe’s founder
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.