Editor’s Note: This review has been updated and corrected to reflect the composition of the cast.
By Sandi Masori
SAN DIEGO — Perhaps inspired by Hamilton, a revival of 1776, a play about the signing of the declaration of independence, traveled to Broadway San Diego at the Civic Theatre downtown. This adaptation of the play from the 1960s version tries to take a different look at the founding of our country with a cast described as “female, transgender and non-binary actors.”
With cast members who sounded like females portraying our nation’s founding fathers, as well as the female roles, in my opinion the impact of the original play was diminished. While I understand what the directors may have been envisioning, instead it felt like watching a play at an all-girls boarding school. Perhaps it would have been better if they had committed to the gender-bending all the way, with males taking female roles.
It is possible that the show I saw was just an off day, so take the following in that spirit. The last scene was the most energetic and lively. Perhaps if they had Tarantino’d the play and started at the end, and then moved back to the beginning, it would have been more interesting. Instead, time dragged and there was a very slow build to the end. Some of the actresses seemed to be attempting special voices for their characters resulting in the meaning of the words getting lost. I think they would have been better off if they used their normal voices and tones and let that be juxtaposed against the words and the very patriarchal conversations in the play.
There were a couple of standouts, Liz Mikel lit up the stage as Benjamin Franklin. Mikel was the only actor who got a loud roar from the crowd at the curtain call. Mikel’s performance was much stronger than those of the rest of the company. Nancy Anderson did a good job as Thomas Jefferson winning extra points for violin solos. And Kassandra Haddock did an infuriatingly good job at portraying Edward Rutledge, especially as Rutledge tries to protect the right to own slaves.
The sets were simple, using a couple of curtains, projections and wooden tables and chairs. It was effective, though with the reliance on modern projection capabilities, I wonder how they staged it back in the 60s when they didn’t have all that tech.
There was a micro-Jewish moment, when John Adams was being presented with gifts from various organizations to thank him for fighting for independence, one of the baskets was from a Jewish congregation. So, we did have some representation there.
The show made me wonder how the country would have looked if in fact it had founding mothers. If women and men had been equal back then, how different would our country, and the world be?
*
Sandi Masori is a theatre and food reviewer for San Diego Jewish World. When she’s not watching local theatre she helps people self-publish their books on Amazon, hangs out with her kids and hunts for the best sushi in town.