Review by Elyse Trevers
Why do producers mount revivals? They know hit Broadway shows, especially musicals, have built-in audiences. So directors either cast them with performers who have star power (Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster in “Music Man” ) or they seek unique ways to present the shows. Just look at all the variations of Shakespeare’s works as those plays shift time periods, clothing and even jargon.
This season the musical “1776” has undergone just such a transition. (A disclaimer, I love the music of “1776,” the show by Peter Stone and Sherman Edwards) This revival, co-directed by Diane Paulus and Jeffrey L. Page, at the American Airlines Theater, offers a different interpretation of the Founding Fathers. Instead of a group of white men, this cast consists of a diverse group of women, binary and transgender actors. The men who crafted and signed the Declaration of Independence spoke for the entire new country, yet they were all white men of property and their document excluded the perspectives of women and minorities.
The concept and purpose of the revival is laudable, but I’m not certain it is effective. The songs in the first act, often fun and pleasant, move very quickly. John Adams, (an excellent Crystal Lucas-Perry) is annoying and persistent, as “he” demands that the Congressional Congress vote for independence. In a unique twist, Thomas Jefferson (Elizabeth A. Davis ) is visibly pregnant. At first, I thought that this was a staged device to be even more inclusive. Yet the actress, who plays the violin as Jefferson, was actually seven months pregnant when I saw the show.
Act II slows down because almost each song has become a long ensemble number. Sadly, pieces that were impactful in the original seem to lose something in the new version. The cast is excellent and the singers are wonderful. Yet when Salome Smith sings “Momma, Look Sharp” about a young soldier, it should bring tears to your eyes. The original was done quietly as a solo and was poignant. This rendition was much bigger and lost impact.
A musical number that is causing an off-stage furor because of comments made by a cast member, is “Molasses to Rum,” sung by Sara Porkalob. She plays Edward Rutledge, the representative from South Carolina who refuses to sign unless the passage about banning slavery is stricken from the document. “He” calls out the others for their hypocrisy, noting that they all, including the Northern states, profit from slavery. The number depicts a slave auction with the Black performers in the middle on the slave block while the others are the would-be buyers. At the end of the song, there was a sense of disquietude. Afterwards, I expected a tumultuous applause from the audience but was surprised that the reaction didn’t stop the show.
These two emotional moments missed the mark, perhaps because directors Paulus and Page were trying to do too much. Theater can be a marvelous tool for learning and “1776” can still teach youngsters and their parents about American history, and there were several children in the audience at the matinee I attended.
Despite whitewashing, the Founding Fathers were certainly flawed and the struggle to declare independence was a struggle among men with different agendas. It involved many compromises, many of which we are trying to sort out today. “1776” reveals the discord among the signers and their disparate personalities and the rift that slavery caused among them, foreshadowing the Civil War. As well-intentioned as Paulus and Parks with their version of “1776,” like the Declaration of Independence itself, the show is far from perfect, not without flaws.
