1776

 1776: Elaine Liner review

Lyric Stage’s 1776 is a Star-Spangled Treat

Great idea by Lyric Stage producer Steven Jones to open his revival of the grand old musical 1776 during campaign season. If only more of those pesky “undecided voters” could see it.

What they would witness first and foremost is another of Lyric’s spectacular productions of a rarely done piece of American musical theater. As with Oklahoma! and The Most Happy Fella earlier this year, Lyric director Cheryl Denson has cast 1776 with extraordinarily good actor-singers. Brian Gonzales, now a veteran of two Broadway shows, is back in town to play the lead, the “agitator” John Adams. Bryant Martin co-stars as Thomas Jefferson, with David Coffee as Ben Franklin, Christopher Curtis as John Dickinson, Kyle Cotton as Edward Rutledge and James Williams as John Hancock. The 33-piece orchestra led by musical director Jay Dias includes piccolos, a harpsichord, a harp and eight violins — more instruments than any Broadway tour that hits the Winspear or Fair Park.

Besides its value as a sparkling evening of smart entertainment, however, this show also provides a cleverly laid out history lesson. Think Congress is a mess now? In Philadelphia in the summer of 1776, the representatives from the 13 original colonies were at each other’s throats, not just about declaring independence from England, but whether rum should be served during sessions before 10 a.m. And who keeps opening the windows and letting in all those flies?

With Adams pounding away at his talking points, and 33-year-old Jefferson putting quill to parchment to lay out reasons for creating the United States of America, compromise is reached and a nation is born. Compromise. Remember when that was a good thing?

Book writer Peter Stone wove a lot of wit into his script for 1776, which premiered to great success on Broadway in 1969 and has been revived there only once. It is more verbose than most musicals; after a couple of boisterous opening numbers, there’s a song-free 40-minute stretch that’s all arguments among the Founding Fathers. But it’s fast-paced, and actors Gonzales, Coffee, Curtis and Williams keep the energy popping like Fourth of July firecrackers.

The score by Sherman Edwards makes extravagant use of the 25 men’s voices, together and in duets. (The two women’s roles are Abigail Adams, played beautifully here by Amber Nicole Guest, and Martha Jefferson, sung with sexy spunk by Maranda Harrison.) The 100-minute first act closes with the most haunting solo, “Momma, Look Sharp,” recounting the horrifying battlefield experiences of a young American soldier. SMU senior Max Swarner shows off his stunning tenor voice and considerable depth as an actor playing the nameless courier who sings this song, an anthem to heroes who die for decisions made by important men in rooms far away from war.

1776: Alexandra Bonifield review

I Do Declare! 1776 at Lyric Stage

“Our do-nothing Congress isn’t worth a darn. All they do is sit on their rich, elitist butts. They squabble over petty issues, insult each other rudely, complain about the weather and refuse to deal with real issues making life tough for the average citizen.” Sound like a polite Facebook post about the 2012 Congress? An observer could very well have made those remarks, after spending an afternoon peering through an open window at the shenanigans of a decidedly “do-nothing” Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1776. At the very least, the shocked observer would start with that premise if they sat through a performance of the Peter Stone and Sherman Edwards musical “1776,” playing at Lyric Stage in its Irving Carpenter Hall venue through November 4, 2012. Some things never change, politicians topping that list.

The dramatic arc of this two act work reveals an insider view of the acrimonious path the Declaration of Independence signors followed leading up to their final shining moment of committed statesmanship. Told primarily from the perspective of pushy, obnoxious, generally disliked Bostonian John Adams, the work illuminates the precarious reality of the circumstance by putting a very human face on the proceedings and interactions, drawn largely from letters and journals of those involved. At times raucous, at others sober, the musical offers its audience an entertaining glimpse into the minds, hearts and souls of King George III’s most rebellious subjects who finally achieve enough consensus to gather the communal courage to change the course of history.

Not a show particularly memorable for its music, there are long stretches of nothing but sparring, bickering and cajoling.  Due to the strength of its cast, led by supremely confident, clarion-voiced Brian Gonzales as John Adams and the masterful comic presence of David Coffee as avuncular, wise-cracking Dr. Franklin, the show hits as true and compelling a note as everything else Lyric Stage has mounted this year. Director Cheryl Denson uses Kevin Rupnik’s imposing, historically evocative “thrust within a proscenium” angled set to best advantage. The audience senses the heat in the Congress’ claustrophobically crowded meeting room as the men preen and parry, or slump in resigned, enforced contemplation. Apron areas down right or left of the central massive wooden set piece allow the solos or private interactions to resonate effectively.

Stand-out numbers on opening night included: “The Lees of Virginia”, featuring Gonzales, Coffee (Adams and Franklin) and Michael Isaac as Richard Henry Lee as a rollicking, amusingly-choreographed trio; a teasingly bawdy “He Plays the Violin”, with lithe soprano Maranda Harrison as Martha Jefferson swept spryly around the full downstage area by Adams and Franklin (fine choreography by Vicki Squires); and a pensive, exquisitely voiced performance of “Mama, Look Sharp” by Max Swarner as the exhausted Courier on an almost bare stage while Congress is in recess. Act Two’s standout song, “Molasses to Rum”, in which South Carolina’s Edward Rutledge excoriates the northern colony representatives for their hypocritical profiteering from slavery with near operatic rage failed to achieve anticipated impact. Sung by the supremely talented Kyle Cotton (breathtaking as Jud in Lyric’s recent “Oklahoma!”), his voice seemed overpowered by the orchestra’s volume and oddly distorted on mic. The sense of his words got lost. Technical adjustments should sort out the problem so Cotton’s talents can carry the vocally demanding, socially relevant number home. Suspense builds with palpable tension as Denson intensifies her able cast’s onstage depiction of the considerable strife leading to the show’s culminating peak. A scrim softly drops before the final scene as each man signs the “treasonous” document when the secretary calls his name. They freeze behind the scrim, carefully assembled in the famous tableau painted by John Trumbull. The audience surges to its feet, cheering and clapping, in celebration of the delightful performance and  honor of the historic opportunity these rebellious men created. If only today’s Congress would live up to that promise. E pluribus unum. Ad astra per aspera.

Musical direction by Jay Dias, with full 35 piece orchestra. The cast of distinction also includes: Amber Nicole Guest, Bryant Martin, Jeff Bailey, Lon Barrera, Russell Batchelor, Jonathan Bragg, David Cook, Christopher Curtis, Parker Fitzgerald, Gordon Fox, Kevin Friemel, Joseph Holt, M. Shane Hurst, Art Kedzierski, Mark Oristano, Randy Pearlman, Ben Phillips, Michael Pricer, Neil Rogers, James Williams, Chip Wood.

1776: Lawson Taitte review

IRVING — If you need a little motivation to get out to the polls this year, make a visit to Lyric Stage’s 1776. The Tony Award-winning musical gets the patriotic juices flowing every time you see it.

It’s a strange hybrid of a piece, but it certainly does work, especially when performed as well as at Lyric Stage. Peter Stone’s book, based on original documents and letters, recounts the events leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence with surprising accuracy. It could stand on its own as a gripping historical pageant. In fact, there’s a sequence of political arguments in the first act said to be the longest scene without a song in any American musical.

Composer Sherman Edwards was otherwise known for pop ditties like “See You in September.” His songs for 1776 are lively and rousing and sometimes go deeper. Still, this isn’t a show you remember for its score. It’s about the history, which it makes digestible and entertaining.

Lyric Stage’s cast, directed by Cheryl Denson, features a dozen performers who have headlined other shows around town, as well as a strong group of supporting players. The leading characters are John Adams and Ben Franklin, who here are like a pair of Neil Simon leading men — one cantankerous, the other a wisecracker — only smarter and conscious of their historical destiny.

Brian Gonzales, returning to town after major assignments in New York, is almost too charming as Adams, who is repeatedly characterized as “obnoxious and disliked.” Fortunately, Gonzales has a moral force onstage that lets you believe him as a great man — and he has one of the most dependable singing voices around. David Coffee is a natural as Franklin. With his fringed bald wig, he’s the spitting image of the Philadelphia sage. You just know the creator of Poor Richard’s Almanac tossed off his one-liners with this kind of panache. In this show, the young Thomas Jefferson (Bryant Martin) is almost Adams’ and Franklin’s talented mascot, impatient to get back to his sexy wife (Maranda Harrison).

Most of the featured performers get a single song in which to shine. Max Swarner ends the first act on a poignant note as the young courier remembering his friends’ deaths in battle. Christopher Curtis leads a group in an ironic minuet as John Dickinson, an opponent of independence. As South Carolina’s Edward Rutledge, Kyle Cotton gets the show’s most memorable number, “Molasses to Rum,” which indicts the North’s hypocrisy in condemning slavery while profiting from it; he’s memorably forceful, but his words are sometimes unclear and his pitch sometimes sharp.