The cast of 1776 (photo: Joan Marcus)

1776, one of the unalloyed delights of American musical theater, won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1969. The musicalized comedy-drama about the Founding Fathers' ratification of the Declaration of Independence at a low point in the colonies' fight for freedom from England remains a most entertaining history lesson, thanks to Sherman Edwards' delightful score and clever lyrics and Peter Stone's endlessly droll (if at times historically inaccurate) book. John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Hancock and all the rest come alive through song, dance, witty repartee and a tautly dramatic recreation of our country's birth.

 

Revivals of 1776 are infrequent, maybe because memories are forever wedded to the glorious original staging, which was followed by the equally delectable movie version in 1972: both starred the inimitable William Daniels as Adams, Howard da Silva as Franklin and Ken Howard as Jefferson. 

 

There was an impressive 1997 Roundabout Theater revival, a satisfying 2009 production at New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse, and a buoyant 2016 semi-staging at City Center’s Encores. Only the Encores presentation nodded to multicultural casting, and mainly in minor roles. The current Roundabout revival, which originated at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massaschusetts, was codirected by Jeffrey L. Page and Diane Paulus, and is notable for being completely cast with female, transgender and non-binary performers. Whether such casting throws the more problematic aspects of the musical—namely, that all but two of the characters are white men, and several are slaveholders—into greater relief is still an unanswered question thanks to the muddled staging. 

 

Too many of the performers seem to have been encouraged to ham it up, to underline every line or reaction with unnecessary overacting or over-the-top singing, similar to what often happens to poor Shakespeare in Central Park. Stone’s superlative book—filled with dazzling dialogue and endlessly quotable one-liners—doesn’t need to any goosing up to get its point across: indeed, it could make a terrific play on its own. But Edwards’ droll songs complement the story, and neither the book nor the music need any additional nudging from performers to alert audience members how they should react.

 

There are intermittently powerful moments, but even these have the rug pulled out under them by baffling directorial decisions. For example, “Momma, Look Sharp,” the emotional soldier’s ballad sung by the courier who delivers General Washington's increasingly distressing dispatches to Congress, is given a quite beautiful rendition by Salome B. Smith—at least until the tune is turned into a loud, brash showstopper, complete with a chorus of grieving mothers and a shattering musical crescendo. Subtle it isn’t.

 

Another problem more generally with this distaff revival is that, since the timbre of these performers’ voices is higher than that of the male performers who have nearly exclusively sung these songs, the orchestra often drowns out some of Edwards’ best lyrics. But that might just be my ears.

 

In an energetic cast, best are Crystal Lucas-Perry as an unimpeachable John Adams, Elizabeth A. Davis as a quietly eloquent Thomas Jefferson (the performer’s very visible pregnancy says more about the impending birth of our nation than any of the obvious directorial touches) and Carolee Carmello as unapologetic loyalist John Dickinson. Indeed, Carmello’s leading of “Cool Cool Considerate Men,” that supremely cutting hymn to reactionary Conservative values, is the highlight of a well-meaning but confused production.