"1776": a timely tale of the birth of a nation

Theater Review |

With election season picking up speed, what better time to resurrect a Tony-winning musical about the creation of the Declaration of Independence?

First produced on Broadway in another politically tumultuous year, 1969, Sherman Edwards' and Peter Stone's "1776" lightly fictionalizes the efforts of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams to persuade a reluctant Congress to put an end to British rule.

Suspense turns out to be a key element in Seattle Musical Theatre/Civic Light Opera's solid new production of the show. For nearly three hours, the actors manage to smother our awareness of how it turns out — especially William Hamer as the overbearing John Adams, whose lack of social graces nearly negates his commitment to the cause.

Whenever Hamer is onstage, matching wits with Franklin (wryly played by William J. Darkow), Jefferson (quietly charismatic Daniel Stoltenberg) or the formidable Pennsylvania spokesman for the status quo, John Dickinson (scary Lantz Wagner), you feel that things might not turn out so well after all.

Wagner is especially diabolical when he's leading a pack of fellow conservatives to the tune of "Cool, Cool Considerate Men," while Mark D. Lew turns Edward Rutledge's showy number, "Molasses to Rum," into a devastating attack on the hypocrisies built into the practice of American slavery.

Just when a stalemate threatens, a courier arrives to report the horrors of the battlefield. John Rising's poignant rendition of "Mama, Look Sharp" reminds us that real lives are being lost as politicians argue. It's the kind of showstopper that briefly takes the play to another level.

When the Oscar-winning Stone was first approached about writing the book for "1776," he thought it was undoable. Only later, after Edwards wrote the songs and the nation was rocked by the divisions of the late 1960s, did he agree that it might be time to use the format of a Broadway show to examine the birth of the nation.

This new production, directed by Ann Arends and featuring a five-piece band conducted by Paul Linnes, also communicates a sense of timeliness and urgency.