Chris Jones writes: 'In short, you have a revival that wants both to revive the material and blow it up, even though 1776 hardly was a crude work of musical triumphalism.'
NEW YORK — As directed by Jeffrey L. Page and Diane Paulus, the revival of the 1969 musical “1776,” which opened Thursday in a production by the Roundabout Theatre Company, is the latest entry in the current trend of blowing up the baked-in optimism of the American musical theater.
With “1776,” now in a limited Broadway engagement and starring Crystal Lucas-Perry as John Adams, Patrena Murray as Benjamin Franklin and Elizabeth A. Davis as Thomas Jefferson, none of that applies.Part of the issue here is that Lin-Manuel Miranda got there first with “Hamilton,” an original show that made the vital point that the Founding Fathers were not the crusty, white-haired crew from your wallet but young, scrappy and hungry.
The opening moment of seeing this committed company of folks, excluded historically not just from the events being depicted but from Broadway itself, is as arresting as it is potent. Many make their Broadway debuts. But the show is still a muddle of styles: the score is said to feature updated arrangements, but they sometimes feel just louder than conceptually rethought. Some of the acting feels intentionally of this moment; other performances have a period veneer. And, more problematic yet, it rarely feels like anything really is being lived or decided in real time.
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