By Keith Kreitman, Contributor
It is difficult to come up with an adequate superlative for the Hillbarn Theatre’s production of the musical “1776.”
I suppose “brilliant” would be the closest – brilliant play concept, brilliant dialogue, brilliant cast. And what is more, add imaginative choreography on a small stage.
Actually, this book by Peter Stone, with music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards, is not really a musical in a conventional sense. It is a play with a few songs sparsely distributed within. At the core is a highly dramatic re-creation of the events leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.
After witnessing the political infighting and disturbing compromise of the 13 colonies’ delegates, one brushes away a tear in the play’s final moments when each is called to the desk to follow John Hancock in the signing. We remember again the debt we owe to their outstanding daring with only George Washington’s pathetic, rag-tag army standing between the colonies and the might of England, the world’s most powerful empire of that era.
…The original Broadway play – dating 1969 – was am award winning success, but it requires an outstanding cast, realistic set and authentic costuming to ring that Liberty Bell again. Director Toni Tomei put enough of that together to put another crack in it.
In a uniformly luminous cast, some glow more brightly. Kevin Vermillion is the pivotal figure as the Continental Congress’ disliked gadfly, independence driven John Adams of Massachusetts.
Jack Ramage matches him – in costume he is a reincarnation of Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania.
Russ Bohard, as the Tory John Dickinson of Pennsylvania…In fact Solovay silences the Congress with the play’s most powerful song “Molasses to Rum,” skewering the Norhteastern colonies’ hypocrisy about the slave trade.
Alan Phinney is winsomely appealing as the 31-year-old Virginian, Thomas Jefferson, who is conned into writing the Declaration of Independence, when all he wants to do is go home to his beautiful wife.
Ron Smith, in Puritan-like dress, is the comic relief as rum soaked but lovable Steven Hopkins of Rhode Island. Terrence Lewis is spacey, family infatuated Richard Henry Lee, scion of the Lees of Old Virginia. And with very few lines, Ray Renati is impressively dignified as the eminently fair John Hancock of Massachusetts, President of the Continental Congress.
The two beautiful wives, Abigail Adams and Martha Jefferson, are Glenna Digiacinto and Mary Moore, both with lovely singing voices.
But singling out individual performers does not come close to explaining the success of this production. It is the sustained interaction and characterizations by the entire company that make this a unique and memorable theatrical experience.
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