Musical history lesson sings

Lisa Bornstein, Rocky Mountain News

Friday, April 20, 2007

There aren't many musicals where you walk out humming the book, but 1776 stands at the top of that odd heap. It's also one of the only shows dominated by middle-aged men. And the current production may leave you just a little prouder of your nation than you were when you walked into the theater.

Set in the sweltering summer of, well, you know, 1776 brings history to vivid, human life as the members of the Second Continental Congress move toward a Declaration of Independence. It's not an easy move, though. In this show, written by Peter Stone, we see how early regional politics played into consensus-building and how knuckle-bruising forming a nation can be. Not to mention terrifying.

Town Hall presented a bang-up production in 2000, and while this one suffers slightly by comparison, it's still an involving event. John Thornberry directs a mixed bag of performers, many of whom are so good you're stunned when they step out of the shadows for a big moment. David Ambroson, long a Town Hall asset, brings power and an ethical contrariness to John Dickinson, the Pennsylvania Loyalist. Joel Sutliffe chills as the southerner Edward Rutledge, who exposes the complicity of the North in the slave trade with one of the show's finer songs, Molasses to Rum.

Keegan Flaugh makes Thomas Jefferson a modest, lusty and reluctant drafter of the document, and Michael Emmit plays Lyman Hall with elegance and bearing (if, strangely, no Southern accent).

There are only two women in this large cast, but they do memorable work, particularly blessed by the singing voices of Kelly Stoneberger and Michelle Merz as Abigail Adams and Martha Jefferson.

Two of the play's central characters, instigator John Adams and patriarch Benjamin Franklin, are given competent performances by Paul Dunne and Ken Street, but neither conveys the charisma those characters require.

And while John Thornberry pulls out fine performances (with skillful musical direction by Amanda Farnsworth), his staging doesn't bring enough dynamism to Stuart Barr's impressive set.

1776

• Grade: B

• When and where: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays, Town Hall Arts Center, 2450 W. Main St., Littleton

• Cost: $16 to $33

• Information: 303-794-2787