Brandon Victor Dixon Tony nominee Brandon Victor Dixon (The Color Purple) was center stage in the original New York production of the John Kander and Fred Ebb musical The Scottsboro Boys in 2010, only to miss out on the show’s subsequent Broadway transfer and acclaimed 2013 London premiere at the Young Vic. Now he has returned to the starring role of Haywood Patterson—one of nine young black Americans accused of raping two white women in 1930s Alabama—for the show’s West End transfer, currently in previews at the Garrick Theatre. It’s an emotional homecoming—since last appearing in the musical, Alabama has granted posthumous pardons to three of the real-life “boys,” Dixon’s character included. Broadway.com caught up with Dixon to talk musicals that matter, mixing acting with producing, and what it might take to get him to stay in London.They say you can’t go home again, but you clearly have!Yes, I did all the readings and then the Vineyard production [off-Broadway] so it feels wonderful to come home and finish the other leg of our journey. I always thought from my knowledge of London theater and the audiences here that they would appreciate a truly genius piece of theatrical work.I assume conflicts elsewhere kept you from the show’s British premiere last fall at the Young Vic?I was in Motown [on Broadway] at the time but I’ve always been aware of each production of Scottsboro no matter where it’s happening. We’re all a family by this point.What is it like to reprise something from four years ago? Is your sense memory kicking in?In all honesty, this has been a wonderful experience but also a complicated one. I’ve never gone back to do a role again. Also, because some of our cast are from the Young Vic and some from Broadway, and some are new and some from the original, we’ve had to find a throughline so that we’re all operating from the same world.is it gratifying be reminded of a musical that is willing to take such risks in its depiction of a shameful chapter in American race relations?I just think this is a remarkable piece, not just in terms of its atypical subject matter, which is pretty much in the wheelhouse of Kander and Ebb, but the way in which they and [book writer] David Thompson and [director/choreographer] Susan Stroman managed to take this unknown but incredibly significant story and communicate the realities and circumstances of the times while putting it through a framework which is entertaining but also challenging.You mean the minstrel show format?Yes, which means that people can’t just watch [the production], they have to feel it; I think it’s an incredibly effective construction.Haywood is a remarkable figure in that he refused throughout to confess his guilt in order to gain parole.He’s the final straw that won’t break. In order to be pardoned, the other boys had to plead guilty, which Haywood wouldn’t do, so he is the one character who never makes it out of prison. It’s as if he is saying, “You’ve taken so much from me as a person and as a human being, that I won’t allow you that power over me.” He refuses to let anyone change or compromise who he is.Did you know a lot about this event before you first came to this show?I did not. I had to research the story to discover who these people were only to find that it was such a monumental moment in world history and nobody knew about it. My brother is a lawyer and he had studied the case in law school because it set a lot of legal practice but people for the most part are not educated about these kinds of stories in our history.And as recent history has shown, we’re not entirely out of the woods yet.Of course not. As much as things in America like segregation and Jim Crow have been abolished, the mentality that framed those things has not, so to that extent our show isn’t about Alabama—or racism in Alabama—as much as it’s about a mode of thinking that can become systemic in a society. And systems sometimes take longer to change than people do.You say that you’d always thought British audiences would get Scottsboro —have you spent time here?Yes, a friend and I were on the BADA [British American Drama Academy] program here at Balliol College, Oxford, in 1999, the year I turned 18. I used to shoot up to London to see theater and I still have an uncle who lives in Dollis Hill.You’re also a producer with two Broadway credits [Hedwig and Of Mice and Men]. How did that come about?I think from wanting as full an understanding of the production as possible, which means executing your lines and knowing who your character is but also how does my work fit into the context as a whole? My business partner Warren Adams and I formed our company WalkRunFly as part of what felt like a logical progression: if you want to execute things to your satisfaction, then you want to have as much control as you can. That leads to helping create work for others, not just yourself.They say one in seven Broadway shows pays back, but both of yours were hits!Frankly, some of those seven shows shouldn’t be on Broadway. For my money, there really are some ideas that are terrible ideas, so with regard to that one-in-seven success rate, you could argue that half of those should never have been produced.Might you return to Motown when the musical crosses the ocean to London next year?[Laughs.] We shall see, Matt, we shall see. Treat me nice, and I’ll stick around. View Comments
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Netherlands’ Ministry of Social Affairs, Lombard Odier Investment Managers, Deutsche Asset Management, Wells Fargo Asset Management, Schroders, Insight, Mercer, London Business School, Origo, Aviva, Better FinanceNetherlands’ Ministry of Social Affairs – The Dutch government has named Wouter Koolmees as minister for social affairs and employment. He replaces Jetta Klijnsma, who has held the position since 2008. He is the financial spokesman for the D66 liberal democratic party, one of four parties making up the newly formed coalition. Tamara van Ark, of prime minister Mark Rutte’s VVD party, has been appointed state secretary for social affairs and employment.Klijnsma was recently nominated as the new Royal Commissioner of the Dutch province of Drenthe.Lombard Odier Investment Managers – The Swiss asset manager has hired Robert Schlichting from Deutsche Asset Management to lead its institutional sales for Germany and Austria. He has worked for a number of asset managers including Neuberger Berman, Schroders, BlackRock, Merrill Lynch Investment Managers and JP Morgan Asset Management. In addition, Lombard Odier has appointed Frank Stefes as head of third-party distribution sales for Germany and Austria. He joined the company in 2010 to oversee business development in the two countries.Wells Fargo Asset Management – Dan Morris is the US manager’s new global head of portfolio solutions within its multi-asset team. In his new role Morris is based in London and reports to Nicolaas Marais, president and head of multi-asset solutions. Morris was previously head of US portfolio solutions at Schroders, where he worked alongside Marais until the latter’s departure in January.Wells Fargo has also hired Martijn De Vree from Insight Investment and Frank Cooke from Mercer . Both report to Morris and are based in London. The team is completed by Jonathon Hobbs, who joined from BlackRock in July and also reports to Morris.London Business School Finance Faculty – The school has named three senior finance figures as executive fellows: Dominic Rossi, global CIO for equities at Fidelity International; Stan Beckers, chair of the AQR Asset Management Institute at London Business School and former member of the board of NN Group; and Tom Gosling, partner in PwC’s executive remuneration practice.“We are delighted that these three highly experienced and respected professionals are joining LBS as Executive Fellows of the Finance Faculty. Their appointment comes at a time when business in general, and finance in particular, is coming under close scrutiny for the role it plays in society,” said Professor Suleyman Basak, joint chair of finance at the business school.Origo – The not-for-profit fintech firm has appointed Anthony Rafferty as managing director. He will take on the role from 1 March 2018, succeeding Paul Pettitt. He is currently head of proposition for Aviva’s consumer platform. Rafferty will officially join Origo on 1 January, while Pettitt is set to depart on 28 February. Origo has been involved in the development of the pensions dashboard in the UK, a concept aimed at displaying all an individual’s savings and pension accounts in one palce.Better Finance – The Brussels-based lobby group has elected Jella Benner-Heinacher as president. She is currently the deputy chief executive of DSW, Germany’s oldest and largest association for private investors. “Working at the European level is certainly one of the most important, but also the most challenging, tasks in the field of investor protection,” she said. “Better Finance has to remain one of the strong voices in the future.”