At 12, Lawrence boy taps into 'Scottsboro' role

Haunting piano music underscores a nightmare sequence on stage. But the tall, skinny boy tap-dances with ease, side to side as if pulled by a ventriloquist.

It's all in a day's work for Jeremy Gumbs, 12, of Lawrence, who plays Eugene Williams in "The Scottsboro Boys" - a Broadway musical based on the 1931 case in which nine black teens were wrongly accused of rape and imprisoned.

The historical content is a departure for Gumbs, who has been acting since he was 3 - credits include Young Simba in "The Lion King" on Broadway, and roles in the films "The Perfect Holiday" and "And Then Came Love," as well as on TV's "All My Children."

We talked with Gumbs in his dressing room - complete with a Scrabble game table, two buckets of Halloween candy, and, of course, homework.

So tell me a little bit about your character.

Well, Eugene, I can say was 13 at the time of the Scottsboro case . . . Previously, Eugene was a Chattanooga dishwasher. So he would clean, you know, the whites' dishes and do their clothing and all that . . . He set a date . . . to hop a freight train to go out and search for work. Unfortunately, he didn't find any work. He got pulled over, I think it was, one stop before his destination.

You are playing a role based on history. How did you feel when you first read the script?

When I auditioned, I didn't know much about the Scottsboro case at all. Actually I didn't know anything about it . . . Then they sent me the script. And I noticed as we read through it the first couple of nights, I was just so teary-eyed and crying at just the lines. Even stuff that doesn't make people cry, I was crying at.

So you were teary over finding out that it actually took place? Or what you had to perform?

Yes, the story just made me cry. That nobody knows about the case made me cry . . . You could go right now and ask somebody and they're like, "Scottsboro? What? The show on Broadway?" That's all they know it for. And this is why we're doing the show.

You've got lines to memorize, you've got songs, you've got dance. Have you ever done anything like this before?

This was the first where I actually showed my singing and dancing . . . Previously I would sing at church . . . I've only been dancing for 10, 11 months.

What do you want to do in the future?

"High School Musical 84." Um, "Karate Kid 12." I want to do some more TV and movies. Keep doing what I'm doing now, really . . . I'm going to stick to this hectic business, but I love doing it . . . And I think I'm good at it.