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1776

Funny how we have yet another patriotic musical. This one actually does start with a snare drum. Today’s Bop for America is 1776.

Background Info

1776 is a fantastic show that premiered on Broadway in 1969. It has a fun score, and something cool about it is that it doesn’t have too much music. Every song in the show feels and sounds very essential to the story and score. The plot involves the founding fathers signing the Declaration of Independence. Interesting story: 1776 holds the record for the longest time in a musical without music. Over thirty minutes pass between “The Lees of Old Virginia” and “But, Mr. Adams”. Orchestra members were even allowed to leave the pit.

Writers

1776 has music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards, who didn’t write much for the stage, but wrote hits for Elvis Presley and Sarah Vaughan. The book was written by Peter Stone, who has written plenty for the stage.

Who’s Singing?

I chose to listen to the 1997 Broadway Revival Cast Recording. The revival starred Brent Spiner as John Adams, Linda Edmond as Abigail Adams, and Gregg Edelman as Edward Rutledge.

Let’s Do This

The overture begins with the sound of America. It segues into one of my favorite opening numbers, “Sit Down, John!” by a monologue delivered by John Adams. Then all the men bombard him.

“Sit Down, John!” is something of absolute genius. The constant shouting of “open up a window,” the orchestrations in it, all of it gives the ambience of a super hot room you have to get out of. The harmonies for the Congressmen are stacked really well, with some nice cross-voicing between the First and Second Basses, and boy, these notes get pretty high. The tenors get up to a Bb. Not to ignore that the chorus splits into six different parts. I love this opening number because it’s very memorable and exciting. It really does a good job of setting the mood of the show.

“Piddle, Twiddle, and Resolve” is a song for John Adams in which he complains about Congress’ lack of working. There are some great moments in the orchestrations, where the harpsichord and strings double each other in a nice way. Near the end, John’s wife, Abigail begins to sing and talk with John.

“The Lees of Old Virginia” is a sensational song. It is so boisterous! The word play is also incredib-Lee (why did I let myself do that) impressive. I love the guy playing Lee, Merwin Foard. He has a really big voice and it shows in this fun song.

I really enjoy the overall classical theme in this show. Something else that I think is very true to the time period, but also funny is that they constantly refer to states as Pennsylva-nee-uh and Virgi-nee-uh. Anyway, “But, Mr. Adams” is a song where John Adams is trying to convince different representatives (and Ben Franklin) to write the Declaration of Independence. At the end, the men sing “we may see murder yet” and the tenors are on a high Bb. Already impressive. Then, the chord goes from a C7 to a Db chord and resolves to a nice big ol’ F major.

This next song, “Yours, Yours, Yours” started and I already knew I wasn’t going to like it. To confirm that feeling, they rhymed “vanilla” with “pillow”. There’s just a large sense of not knowing where the beat is in this recording. Come on, y’all.

“He Plays the Violin” is one of the more famous songs from the show because of Betty Buckley’s sheer greatness. Lauren Ward plays Martha Jefferson in this recording, and they took the song down a half-step for her. The song is normally in Eb and they took it down to D. Of course, there is a key change that goes up a half-step during the dance break. The song ends in Eb, rightfully so. Something Seth Rudetsky pointed out in his Deconstruction of this song that I really like is that the notes Martha sings are like how a violin is tuned: by fifths. The melody written out in solfege is “sol-do-so-re-la-la”. “Sol” to “re” to “la” are all fifths. If the composer wanted it to sound like a violin, that was a really awesome way to do it. Lauren Ward’s placement on “and then it will be” is absolutely remarkable. A pure “e” vowel. Like COME ON. I love it.

Dickinson and the men rejoice that John Adams isn’t around in “Cool, Cool, Considerate Men”. It features yet another genius rhyme of “Hosanna” with “banner”.

It’s basically the Conservative men reminding everyone that they’re Conservative. That’s all I’m going to say on the subject. Decent harmonies. I actually do like the stacked harmonies on the word “cool” towards the end.

“Mama, Look Sharp” closes Act One. This song is so depressing. It’s about this guy who said both of his best friends died on the same day, and he describes the thoughts his friends might’ve had while they were dying. It’s very simple. I love it.

This show has the shortest Act Two I’ve ever seen with only four songs. “The Egg” opens Act Two with a trio between Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and John Adams, and also has the chorus. I love Pat Hingle as Benjamin Franklin because he is undeniably playing the character first and foremost even if that makes him sound bad sometimes.

There’s a lot of dialogue in this cast recording, which I like. Another more famous number in the show is “Molasses to Rum”. Sung by Edward Rutledge, who was once played by John Cullum on Broadway and in the film.This song plays a lot with compound rhythms, which is always challenging. This song is very interesting in terms of subject matter. South Carolina’s representative, Edward Rutledge is for slavery and accuses the northern colonies of being hypocrites because the prosperity of the North thrives on molasses, rum, and slaves. Obviously, the Congress doesn’t want this, so they do not remove the clause that condemns slavery, and the Carolinas and Georgia walk out. This song is probably one of the best written in the show because of its dramatic weight, but also the music in it is absolutely phenomenal. ALSO THE ENDING ON THIS RECORDING. Wow. Screaming trumpets.

Abigail has a little moment called “Compliments” that honestly should be longer. The women in this show are very short-changed.

John has the last song in the show, called “Is Anybody There?” He is discouraged, but determined. He decides to have a brighter look for the future of America. The ending is a little anticlimactic. The Liberty Bell rings while the men’s names are announced.

Audition Songs

“Piddle, Twiddle, and Resolve” - John Adams, Db3-Eb4

This is a very good song for a Baritone to sing. It’s not well-known, and there’s several places you could cut from.

“He Plays the Violin” - Martha Jefferson, Bb3-D5

This is a great song for Mezzo-Sopranos. It’s not incredibly high, and it has a nice classical flair to it. Just cut the men’s parts at the end.

“Molasses to Rum” - Edward Rutledge, Eb3-Ab4

This is a fantastic song. It is very well-written. It’s good for both performance and auditions. It has a really dark subject matter. This would be a really good song for an audition for a character like Dom Claude Frollo. Someone who has morally wrong beliefs, but they’re so sure that what they’re doing is right that it doesn’t matter that it’s actually wrong. Good for both Baritones and Tenors.

To Wrap It Up

This show would’ve worked a lot better as a play than a musical. I do suppose that I need to read the script to get the whole thing. Something that kind of annoyed me with this particular recording is that a lot of the written melody was either changed or spoken over. That’s annoying to me. Just sing it. I know that there have been productions where the cast has been changed to all women. That sounds so perfect. The theatrical world we live in today with people of color playing people who were probably white, like Hamilton, and Glenda Jackson playing King Lear should allow a Broadway production of 1776 with a completely female cast INCLUDING women of color. Or just a regular production with both men and women of color. Like, imagine Audra McDonald as John Adams. YES PLEASE. There was an Encores! Production of 1776 recently starring Santino Fontana as John Adams, and there were several men and women of color in the production, and it looked and sounded like 1776. Still the same show; just a different take on it. All in all, this is a good show. I think it should be produced more often, especially in today’s political state and climate. This show is also very accessible for high schools and colleges that could cast it gender-blind. Why not?

Get it.

Pearl Garnet Amethyst and (Connie?)

P and G from Lars and the cool kids episode... Amethyst from (Steven’s Sheild/cookie cat) episode and (connie?) from a seen on Homeworld... or is it Stevonnnie?

I think it’s Connie...

#Steven Universe #pencil drawing #drawing #pencil #mechanical pencil #Pearl #Garnet #Amythest #Connie #stevonnie #The new Beardsley Prince #The New Beardsley Prints #Glen Beardsley #Beardsley #Gwen Beardsley #Glen Davis #12 pelts #ENCEPHALON