Looking Sharp: 1776 at DPAC Features an All-Female Cast,
Some Very Strong Actor/Singers, and a Dynamic Design

DPAC's presentation of 1776, directed by Jeffrey L. Page and Diane Paulus and choreographed by Page, stars (from left) Gisela
Adisa as John Adams, Nancy Anderson as Thomas Jefferson, and Liz Mikel as Benjamin Franklin (photo by Joan Marcus)

The national tour of the most recent Broadway revival of Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone's marvelously oddball 1776: A Musical Play, which famously ends with no finale, has landed at the Durham Performing Arts Center for a weeklong engagement. This production has as its calling card an all-female cast, some very strong actor/singers, and a dynamic design.

The production begins, literally, with a smirk ... at the projected image of our "Founding Fathers." What follows, however, is, interestingly and movingly, anything but. As the ensemble assembles, already dressed in some clothing from the 1700s, along with leggings that wouldn't have made it very far through the mud-encrusted streets of old Philadelphia, they deliberately remove their modern shoes and replace them with the slippers associated with the wealthy of that age.

From that point forward, we see mostly young women playing the mostly male characters with a passion and, indeed, reverence that I didn't expect. Gisela Adisa's John Adams is bullheaded, brave, a little reckless, and entrancing throughout. Nancy Anderson's Thomas Jefferson and Liz Mikel Benjamin Franklin clearly and distinctively round out the trio of comic conspirers whose aim it is to create a document that will so powerfully articulate the need for independence that none of the disparate colonies, despite their differing "interests," dare say "nay."

The Durham Performing Arts Center's May 30-June 4 presentation of the national tour of 1776: A Musical Play stars (from left) Liz
Mikel as Benjamin Franklin, Nancy Anderson as Thomas Jefferson, and Gisela Adisa as John Adams (photo by Joan Marcus)

The music has been tinkered with in ways that to my ear are not entirely helpful. Most songs sound mostly like they have sounded for the last half-century, with an occasional divergence into what I guess is the current thing.

Scott Pask's scenic design is flexible, evocative of the sweaty courthouse environment in which the Second Continental Congress convened, and allows room for horizontal and vertical staging, if not much depth. The movement, courtesy co-director Jeffrey L. Page, was restrained and yet emphatic. The lighting by Jen Schriever was beautiful and backed the emotion of each moment.

I did have problems hearing some of the lyrics and spoken words, as did the woman sitting next to me on Tuesday evening. This is not the first time that I have had this experience in DPAC; and I'm wondering whether to attribute this to the actors, the sound engineer, or the cavernous building. I kept thinking how striking the actors' work would have been in a more intimate space.

Gisela Adisa stars as John Adams in the current national tour of 1776: A Musical Play, now playing at DPAC (photo by Joan Marcus)

The production's brilliant co-director, Diane Paulus -- to be upfront, I did work with her once back before the Earth cooled, in a production of The Tempest at Columbia University in New York City -- has led the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, MA, for years. There she works in a relatively small space, and I think her work is strongest in that environment; but economics are what they are, so here we were in a barn, watching and rooting on the beginning of a new nation.

If this production has weaknesses, they are mainly ones of overreach. With so much coming and going in this production, I would love to have heard the touching "Mama, Look Sharp" (a report from the battlefield) done simply, with a single, plaintiff voice. But instead, it gets the U2, circa Achtung, Baby, treatment. Similarly, a big hinge moment in the play is the troubling "Molasses to Rum," late in the second act. I'm not sure that the stage fanfare clarified the message of that song, especially for those for whom the lyrics were unfamiliar (that the North was plenty culpable in the Slave Trade). And finally, is it necessary to overlap the final bells ringing in the new nation with a reprise of a song we've heard only minutes before? I don't think that moment is meant to feel like a celebration, I think it is meant to feel like a moment when a door has opened, but no one quite knows what's on the other side. Diane Paulus has a world of talent. I wish sometimes she'd trust the material just a bit more.

"Momma, Look Sharp" stars Tiffani Barbour (left) as Andrew McNair and Brooke Simpson (center) as The Courier (photo by Joan Marcus)

On the casting, a personal note. I was moved by the use of an all-female ensemble. The production seemed to be asking, if this isn't too "on the nose," "What would you have done if you'd been in their shoes?" You can see the actors straining powerfully with that question in the final moments of that play, and we join them.

The early hijinks of Franklin and friends, the raucous opening ("For God's Sake John, Sit Down!") and the tender, lovely moments between John and Abigail Adams (played by Tieisha Thomas), who are only able to communicate through letters because of the war, gave way in the second half to the more charged consideration of whether one should compromise one's principles to achieve something important. In other words, a pretty timely issue. And if nothing else, the play reminds us that Congress can be a useful body when men and women of good faith work together and listen to each other. Do we have such men and women in Congress today? If so, "For God's sake, John, stand up!"

"Cool, Cool Considerate Men" features Joanna Glushak (center) as John Dickinson of Pennsylvania (photo by Joan Marcus)

Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone's 1776: A MUSICAL PLAY (In Person at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, and 1 and 7 p.m. Sunday, May 31-June 4), directed by Jeffrey L. Page and Diane Paulus and choreographed by Page, presented as part of Truist Broadway at DPAC, and starring (in alphabetical order) Shelby Acosta as Congressional Secretary Charles Thomson, Gisela Adisa as John Adams of Massachusetts, Nancy Anderson as Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, Tiffani Barbour as Congressional Custodian Andrew McNair, Dawn Cantwell as Col. Thomas McKean of Delaware, Julie Cardia as Stephen Hopkins of Rhode Island, Joanna Glushak as John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, Anissa Marie Griego as Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Kassandra Haddock as Edward Rutledge of South Carolina, Shawna Hamic as Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, Connor Lyon as Martha Jefferson/Dr. Lyman Hall, Liz Mikel as Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Oneika Phillips as John Hancock of Massachusetts, Lulu Picart as Samuel Chase of Maryland, Ariella Serur as Judge James Wilson of Pennsylvania, Brooke Simpson as a Courier, Sav Souza as Dr. Josiah Bartlett of New Hampshire, Tieisha Thomas as Abigail Adams/Rev. Jonathan Witherspoon of New Jersey, Jill Marie Vallery as Caesar Rodney of Delaware, Zuri Washington as Robert Livingston of New York, Gwynne Wood as George Read of Delaware, and Candice Marie Woods as Joseph Hewes of North Carolina, plus Standbys Amanda Dayhoff, Sara Gallo, Lisa Karlin, Kayla Saunders, and Lillie Eliza Thomas (Durham Performing Arts Center in Durham). DIGITAL PROGRAM: https://issuu.com/dpac0/docs/dpac_1776_digital. DPAC TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiBBnLNMOZA. 1776 VIDEOS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmeYUsX1IEM. THE PRESENTER/VENUE: https://www.dpacnc.com/, https://www.facebook.com/DPACNC, https://www.instagram.com/DPACNC/, https://twitter.com/DPAC, and https://www.youtube.com/user/DPACLive. 2023-24 TRUIST BROADWAY AT DPAC SEASON: https://www.dpacnc.com/truist-broadway/season/truist-broadway-at-dpac-2023-2024. DIRECTIONS: https://www.dpacnc.com/plan-your-visit/directions. PARKING: https://www.dpacnc.com/plan-your-visit/parking. DPAC COVID-19 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS: https://www.dpacnc.com/events/latest-updates-on-events-at-dpac/reopening-faq. THE TOUR: https://www.1776musical.com/, https://www.ibdb.com/tour-production/1776-535188, https://www.facebook.com/1776Musical/, https://www.instagram.com/1776musical, https://twitter.com/Musical1776, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1776_(musical)#Productions. TOUR CAST: https://www.1776musical.com/. TOUR CREATIVE TEAM: https://www.1776musical.com/. GENDER AND PRONOUNS: https://www.roundabouttheatre.org/get-tickets/upstage-guides-current/1776/gender-and-pronouns. 1776: A MUSICAL PLAY (1969 Broadway Musical): https://www.1776musical.com/, https://www.mtishows.com/1776, https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-show/1776-1014, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1776_(musical). STUDY GUIDE (Utah Shakespeare Festival): https://www.bard.org/study-guides/1776-study-guide/. SHERMAN EDWARDS (New York, NY-born composer and lyricist, 1919-81): https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/sherman-edwards-10506, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0250360/, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_Edwards. PETER STONE (Los Angeles, CA-born playwright, 1930-2003): https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/peter-stone-8128, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0832099/, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Stone_(writer). TICKETS: $25 and up, plus taxes and fees. Call 800-982-2787 or click here to buy tickets. GROUPS (10+ tickets): 919-680-2787, Groups@DPACnc.com, and https://www.dpacnc.com/events/groups-services. INFORMATION: 919-680-2787 or CustomerService@DPACnc.com. Susie Potter's Triangle Arts Review Review.

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