Talk about a timely show, given our prickly political season:
1776 has been staged by Dramaworks in
a stirring, “reimagined” version with top notch acting and singing talent. It is THE musical of the year in South
Florida. The show was written during its
own contentious times, the Vietnam conflict, and also when the musical theatre
was in a lengthy transition period, the days of Rodgers & Hammerstein in
the past and at the dawning of the age of Sondheim, with Hamilton lying in the future.
I mention these as there is a dotted line to all.
However 1776
stands on its own as an innovative musical and although it has some long
dramatic stretches between musical numbers, its inspired songs fit perfectly
with “the book.” It is in the tradition
of some of Broadway’s best since Rodgers & Hammerstein changed the course
of musical theater. And now Dramaworks
has augmented it with several innovative concepts, including a clever opening, the
cast in modern dress, clutched to their smart phones and iPads, images of MSNBC
and FOX news and important moments of electioneering history projected in the background,
wondering whether political acrimony has always been the norm in America. Costume changes on stage bring them into the Continental
Congress and so begins the journey of discovering that the here and now is not
that dissimilar to the then and there.
1776 portrays
our founding fathers as real people. It
was conceived by Sherman Edwards who at one time taught high school history and
wrote the music and lyrics. The brilliant
book was written by Peter Stone who chronicles the event with dazzling drama,
tenderness, and abundant comic elements.
There are the blue and red states, each with axes to grind, federalism vs.
state’s rights, but, debate, commitment and compromise inexorably drive
the production’s calendar pages to July 4, 1776 so we all know how it
ends. The show is about how we get
there. Suffice it to say, one wonders
whether we would have a nation at all if today’s dysfunctional congress was
arguing the case.
It invites comparison to today’s musical sensation, Hamilton, which we were fortunate enough to see last year. Hamilton’s
“room where it happened” is about a grand compromise - the assumption of debt
by a new national bank in exchange for placing the capitol on the Potomac
whereas 1776’s “room where it happened” is about another grand compromise, striking the slavery clause for unanimity on signing the Declaration of
Independence: two monumental moments in American History, two outstanding
musicals on the subject, both ageless in their own right.
1776 is the
story of the events leading to the Declaration of Independence while Hamilton is more about the revolution
and its aftermath. Hamilton himself does
not figure at all in 1776 while Adams
is not in the musical Hamilton, other
than when Alexander Hamilton makes reference to off-stage John Adams, saying,
“Sit down, John, you fat motherfucker!”
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| Gary Cadwallader, Laura Hodos |
That was Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hat tip to 1776 and its opening number “Sit Down,
John,” the lyrics which immediately grab you and bring you into the show,
establishing its central character, an impassioned John Adams vs. the hot and
tired Continental Congress and the themes of discord that run throughout the
musical to its ultimate resolution.
John Adams is compellingly played by Gary Cadwallader,
the only actor in the show who has a singular role. He is on stage almost during the entire show --
a bravura performance! Most of the other
actors play characters from the liberal and conservative sides of the aisle. Necessity was the mother of a creative
solution of staging this play with “only” 13 actors instead of the original
show’s 26 and even having some of the female cast members play male roles,
seamlessly, convincingly – sort of the same way the audience of Hamilton adjusts immediately to its
multicultural cast. This conceit of
playing parts from both sides of the aisle also challenges the confirmation
bias that tends to permeate political views.
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| Nicholas Richberg |
Never shying from having to be “politically correct,” the
satirical song “Cool, Cool, Considerate Men” elegantly portrays the right-wing
members of Congress doing a minuet around the lyric "never to the left ...
forever to the right." It was
originally cut from the film version of 1776
because of pressure from Richard Nixon through the producer, Jack Warner. The song is led by the conservative leader
from South Carolina, John Dickinson, delectably played by Nicholas Richberg. His other part is Richard Henry Lee of
Virginia, singing the “deliciouslee,” “compellinglee” memorable “Lees
of Old Virginia” with “hilaritee.” It is a show stopper and Richberg is a very
talented young actor whose professional future is assured.
Allegedly Nixon also wanted to excise the song
"Momma Look Sharp," a plea from a dying soldier to his mother. Again, it helps to put the musical in the
context of the times: the Vietnam War.
This song was not cut. It
captures the heartbreak and misery of war on a very personal level and you can
hear a pin drop when it is hauntingly sung by the courier played by Mallory
Newbrough, yet another young rising star. She also plays the passionate wife of
Thomas Jefferson singing “He Plays the Violin” with exuberance and joy, dancing
with Adams and Franklin. Remarkably she
also has the minor role of George Washington reciting some of his dispatches to
Congress.
“Molasses to Rum” is a powerful piece about the struggle
to include an antislavery clause in the Declaration of Independence which the
northern states capitulated on to make the final compromise. The song incorporates auctioneer’s sounds of
slave markets, and links ties to the northern states in the practice of slavery
thus encapsulating the hypocrisy. It has
to be one of the most devastating songs ever written about slavery, and its
economics and pain. We wondered who
could bring the voice and emotion to this song like the great John Cullum did
in the original stage and film version, and fortunately the show has the
experienced Carbonell Award recipient Shane R. Tanner to play Edward Rutledge
of South Carolina who is definitely up to the task and the comparison. He also plays Dr. Josiah Bartlett representing
New Hampshire.
One of my favorite songs from the show is “Is Anybody
There?” -- a lament sung by John Adams (Gary Cadwallader). While his sentiments
come from the Adams’ letters to his wife Abigail, the title is from the
dispatches sent by the weary George Washington to the Congress without action
or reply.
Although he is separated from his wife throughout the
convening of the Congress in Philadelphia, she appears on stage for duets with
Adams, always very dramatic and touching, their correspondence to song. Abigail Adams is wonderfully depicted by
four-time Carbonell nominee Laura Hodos who has a Broadway-class voice and
seems ideally paired with Cadwallader. Her
duet with him “Yours, Yours, Yours,” is heartbreakingly beautiful as they
conclude the song with “Till then, till then/I am as I ever was and ever was/And
ever shall be/Yours, yours, yours, yours, yours.” She also plays the critical role of John
Hancock, the President of the Second Continental Congress, excelling in that
role as well.
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| Clay Cartland, Allan Baker, Gary Cadwallader |
Special mention goes to Allan Baker who plays the
sometimes cynical and often bawdy, but always pragmatic and influential Ben
Franklin as well as Clay Cartland who convincingly plays the aristocratic Tom
Jefferson, pining for his wife and suffering from writer’s block until she
appears. Mr. Cartland also plays
Georgia’s Dr. Lyman Hall. The rest of
the cast, without exception is terrific: Kevin Healey, Sandi Stock, Troy J.
Stanley, Matthew Korinko, James Berkley, and Michael Collins (providing much
hilarity as New York State’s Lewis Morris who repeats "New York
abstains....respectfully” to all motions).
The musical numbers reminded me of Sondheim with their
harmony and internal rhymes. There is a
touch of Gilbert and Sullivan as well. These
are not the songs one immediately remembers as so many of Rodgers and
Hammerstein’s, but they get under your skin and I find myself today while
writing this review thinking about them and even singing (in my mind) Martha Jefferson’s
“I hear his violin/And I get that feeling within/And I sigh, oh I sigh/He draws
near, very near/And it's hi-hi-hi-diddle diddle/And it's goodbye to the fiddle/My
strings are unstrung/Hi-hi-hi-hi/I'm always undone.” Just brilliant lyrics set to a wonderful
waltz melody.
Dramaworks’ reimagined production is under the
competent direction of Clive Cholerton who had his hands full with a crowded
stage and multiple set changes that had to be choreographed to perfection. He demanded that the actors fully get into
their characters although playing two different people, bringing to the show
“creativity not from freedom but from restrictions.”
As a fully formed musical, the set and the costumes were
critical, especially with frequent costume changes and the limited space on the
stage. Scenic designer Michael Amico
emphasizes functionality above all because of the space and large cast. Brian O'Keefe’s costumes were equally
functional, period perfect, and numerous.
In one scene there are actually 31 quick-change of costumes! Lighting design is by John Hall, and video
design is by Sean Lawson. Michelle
Petrucci is choreographer and assistant director. Sound design by Brad Pawlak adds an additional layer of drama to the production. James Danford, Dramaworks’ always dependable
stage manager, shows his expertise in keeping all these moving parts together.
The musical director Craig D. Ames, who doubles as an extraordinary
keyboardist, brought out the best in this talented cast and his five piece
combo sounded more like a full orchestra.
1776 is a must see, not only
for its relevancy, but simply because it is one of the preeminent Tony Award-winning
American musicals and “reimagined” and presented perfectly by Dramaworks.
