Review: “1776” is back on Broadway with vivacity and a revolutionary cast
“The eagle inside belongs to us!” sing the actors portraying John Adams , Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson in the goofy affirmational anthem “The Egg.” That Lucas-Perry and Murray are Black and Davis is a visibly pregnant White woman adds layers of thrillingly novel context to a song that composer-lyricist Sherman Edwards wrote more than half a century ago for three White men — William Daniels, Howard da Silva and Ken Howard — in the original Broadway version.
In between the votes, mind you, there is a lot of talking and only 12 songs and a reprise. The musical drought in a long stretch of the first act leaves you feeling that Edwards leaned too heavily on Peter Stone’s libretto to carry the exposition. Miranda has spoken of his debt to “1776,” but the earlier musical is not composed in the insistent, sung-through vein of “Hamilton.
Page, who also choreographed, and Paulus devise a muscular palette of movement to drive some of the numbers, particularly in the exhilarating opening, “Sit Down, John,” that establishes the show’s theatrical conceit, which is that the Second Continental Congress managed to adopt the Declaration despite Adams’s pushiness and the delegates’ constant irritation with him. That he is “obnoxious and disliked” is about the only thing everyone agrees on from the start.
The hypocrisies are spelled out enthrallingly in “Molasses to Rum,” Rutledge’s potent number near the end of the musical, when several Black actors shed their Colonial waistcoats and portray people being auctioned off by their enslavers. Porkalob prosecutes the interlude with a smile that radiates guile and superiority. This is a triumphantly malicious capstone to the proceedings.Inequality fostered in nation-building is never far from the thoughts of Paulus and Page.
Indonesia Berita Terbaru, Indonesia Berita utama
Similar News:Anda juga dapat membaca berita serupa dengan ini yang kami kumpulkan dari sumber berita lain.
Review: Broadway’s ‘1776′ is a musical at war with itselfIn this production of the much-loved Peter Stone and Sherman Edwards musical about the signing of the Declaration of Independence, they are open to the charge of bait and switch.
Baca lebih lajut »
America: Pro or Con?In the musical “1776” and the play “Baldwin and Buckley at Cambridge,” we watch as crucial American issues are erased and avoided by rhetoric.
Baca lebih lajut »
Anthony Rapp testifies that Kevin Spacey preyed on him sexually when he was a teenagerRapp is most famous for being an original Broadway cast member of Rent and for his role on the Paramount+ show Star Trek: Discovery.
Baca lebih lajut »
Cheers to Season 13! Look Back at ‘Blue Bloods’ Cast From Season 1 to NowUs Weekly takes a look back at how the cast of ‘Blue Bloods’ has changed since the CBS drama's 2010 debut — see pics
Baca lebih lajut »