Photo by Mark Frohna
Milwaukee Opera Theatre’s one-night-only Monday evening presentation of the Sherman Edwards-Peter Stone musical 1776 was a genuine event. Artistic Director Jill Anna Ponasik has won the trust of Milwaukee artists and audiences through her genius for collaboration and the consistent excellence of her endeavors; therefore, Turner Hall was packed.
The historic ballroom with its peeling walls—so beautifully, sneakily lighted by Jason Fassl—represented Independence Hall in Philadelphia during the weeks leading to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The upstairs balconies were filled with audiences hanging from the rafters and the raked stage became a seating area. Most of the crowd, however, sat at tables spread across the main floor, along with cast members playing the contentious colonial delegates whose task it was to vote for or against independence. A tear-off tablet tracked the dates to July Fourth.
The immersive staging kept my interest through the script’s windier passages more effectively, I think, than a typical proscenium staging would. It was thrilling to be in such close quarters with the extraordinarily talented 27 singer-actors gathered under Paula Suozzi’s perfect direction. The informal dress and the concert staging (many performers carried scripts, although the leads were memorized) freed us from the need to suspend disbelief and let us focus on the content.
The play reminds us that democracy will always be difficult. We’re shown egotism and venality as well as hard work and sacrifice. Conservatives, led by Pennsylvania’s uncompromising John Dickinson (Andrew Witkowske) were loyal to British rule but also to a status quo that served the wealthy. Progressives—led by the tireless John Adams (Matt Daniels), the shameless Ben Franklin (Jonathan West) and the soul-searching Thomas Jefferson (Nathaniel Stampley)—won the unanimous decision for independence but not without painful compromise. The complicity of northern colonies in the slave trade was scathingly underlined by South Carolina’s Edward Rutledge (Timothy Rebers). A nameless courier (Tiana Sorenson) reminded us that boys were dying in the war, meanwhile.
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I was seated with Maryland’s reluctant Samuel Chase (Marcee Doherty-Elst) beside the band led by the incomparable Jack Forbes Wilson on piano with percussionist Michael “Ding” Lorenz, cellist Yeng Thao and violinist Joseph Ketchum. During the moving finale, with a ringing chime for a Liberty Bell and John Hancock (Rana Roman) naming each of the Declaration’s signers, everyone in the room understood that this was our story and our ongoing responsibility.