<\/p>\n
Half the actors onstage are singing \u201cOpen up a window.\u201d But an equally vociferous group disagrees, intoning \u201cToo many flies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Through it all, John Adams loudly pushes the cause of independence from Great Britain, while others try to shush him with \u201cFor God\u2019s sake, John, sit down!\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how the musical \u201c1776\u201d opens, with a song that depicts the Second Continental Congress dealing with the sweltering heat in Philadelphia 250 years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe show is true to life. It tries to show you these are real people,\u201d said Adam Randis, director of the production, which Pennsylvania Theatre of Performing Arts (PTPA) will present July 3 through July 12 at 212 West Broad St., Hazleton. \u201cThey crack jokes. They argue and disagree. And they try to find common ground. We don\u2019t see that so much anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
A history professor at Luzerne County Community College, Randis calls the musical \u201cthe show of my soul.\u201d<\/p>\n
He appreciates the way \u201c1776\u201d tells audiences about a pivotal time in our nation\u2019s history, during which Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, the sage-like Benjamin Franklin gave the not-so-popular John Adams tips on how to deal with people, and delegations from all 13 colonies eventually voted \u201cyes\u201d for independence.<\/p>\n
\u201cAdams is the driving force,\u201d said Randis, who has played the fiery lawyer from Massachusetts himself in past productions. \u201cYou need a real dynamo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Playing John Adams this time around is Ciar\u00e1n R. Burke of Scranton. He describes the character as \u201cvery strong-minded and strong-willed. He can be abrasive. He doesn\u2019t have a lot of patience for what he sees as nonsense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fortunately for the cause of independence, Adams has friends who are not as, in words from the script, \u201cobnoxious and disliked\u201d as he is.<\/p>\n
\u201cFranklin has a tempering influence on him,\u201d Burke said. \u201cEverybody likes Ben Franklin.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dave Zimmerman of Lehighton, who portrays Franklin, agrees. \u201cIf anybody could spend a day with one of the Founding Fathers, people would pick Ben Franklin,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s not straight-laced. He sees life with humor. He tells Adams to relax.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adams is also grateful for support from his wife, Abigail, hundreds of miles away in Boston. Excerpts from the real-life letters the couple wrote to each other are interwoven into the \u201c1776\u201d script and song lyrics<\/p>\n
\u201cHe holds her in such high esteem,\u201d said Kit McElvar of Lehighton, who plays Abigail. \u201cHe would talk to her about everything and seek her advice.\u201d<\/p>\n
McElvar\u2019s research for the play included reading in their entirety many of John and Abigail\u2019s letters, which she found online.<\/p>\n
Other actors have prepared for the show in different ways.<\/p>\n
Jonathan Mosebach of Bethlehem, for one, has been \u201cbrushing up on my Gaelic accent \u2026 listening to Irish music and watching the Tartan Army at the World Cup\u201d for his portrayal of Col. Thomas McKean, one of three delegates from Delaware.<\/p>\n
\u201cDelaware was a microcosm of the country as a whole,\u201d Mosebach said. \u201cBecause the delegates were divided on the question of independence, and so was the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for Geary Gorup of Fleetwood, he plays McNair, the Congressional custodian, \u201cas if he\u2019s slightly hard of hearing. He was always ringing the bell for years. I thought that would have made him slightly deaf.\u201d<\/p>\n
While McNair was not a voting member of Congress, Gorup believes he would have been on the side of those who wanted independence. So, while the script calls for McNair to join in the harmony for a number called \u201cCool, Cool, Considerate Men,\u201d in which the conservative faction of the Congress disdains Adams\u2019 ideas about independence, Gorup said, \u201cThe only way it makes sense to me to have him do that is for him to do it in a mocking way.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCool, Cool, Considerate Men\u201d includes some stylized court dancing, and is one of a wide variety of musical numbers in the show.<\/p>\n
Some are haunting, Randis said, pointing to \u201cMama, Look Sharp,\u201d in which a young courier conjures images of mothers finding their soldier sons dead when they didn\u2019t come home to supper.<\/p>\n
Others deal with such serious subjects as slavery and the evils of a trading triangle that involved molasses, rum and human beings.<\/p>\n
And some, like \u201cThe Egg,\u201d are pure fun. In that one, Jefferson, Franklin and Adams explain why they, respectively, prefer the dove, the turkey and the eagle as the national bird. While they\u2019re at it, they compare the heat of Philadelphia to an incubator for a baby bird in an egg.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd, just as Tom here has written,\u201d they end up singing together. \u201cWe say, to hell with Great Britain. The eagle inside belongs to us!\u201d<\/p>\n
Show times are 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays (including July 4) and 2 p.m. Sunday through July 12. For the final weekend, there are dinner and show options, with Saturday\u2019s dinner starting at 5:30 p.m. and Sunday\u2019s dinner at 12:30 p.m. Dinner reservations for July 11-12 are due by July 6.<\/p>\n