1776 Reviews

Wyatt Pringle from Nashville, Tennessee

WHY & YUCK

1776 was my favorite musical when I was a kid. It's the music we sang (very poorly) as a family on vacations. And it's the show I've seen so many times that I can still sing every line 59 years later There is even a story of my parents inviting an understudy we met at a Chicago performance home for dinner who showed up darn drunk. I hate that this revival is what I took my teenage son to see for his first time. Not sure what was worse, the idea to cast it as an all female show, the performances, the non set design, that John "obnoxious and disliked" Adams came across as likeable or the hypocrisy in this sort of updated casting to still have all the slave characters be African American actresses. The producers must've seen the success of Hamilton and came to the wrong conclusion on how to cash in on this historic show. (pun intended). Simply bringing 1776 in its original form would have provided an I testing debate about which is the better historic record if this country's founding. I actually saw a small community theater in Dickson do this show with some Black and si e woman playing the roles of our very white and very male Founding Fathers. The "orchestra" consisted of a single piano player. That performance was way more interesting than this. At least they had a reason for the casting. They had to use who they could get. I went home and took a long shower. That almost made me feel better

Dex Roberts from Nashville, Tennessee

HARD TO BE "SWIKE" WHEN YOU PUT ALL TO SLEEP

Not sure why so many complaints about this all female cast version of the story of our Founding Fathers is being characterized as being "woke." Most people I saw in the audience were asleep. Using woman to play men's roles isn't a woke thing in this case. It's just a bad idea. Ive read two major newspaper reviews and as many on this thread as I could stomach. None give any good reasons of what an all wan cast was supposed to do for the show. I love this show. I hated this rendition.

Adrienne from Washington, District of Columbia

1776 AT KENNEDY CENTER

all female cast portraying men wasn't what I expected. That wasn't the reason for the review. The cast was great. however it was not Kennedy Center standard, more like a local theatre. I was slowwwww and lots of high pitched screaming. Next time I will wait until someone recommends a show. Totally disappointed.

KC from Kansas City, Missouri

TOTAL BOMB

As season ticket holders we were disappointed at this amateur performance. The casting of the new version was confusing at best. Could not follow as it was very disjointed. The all female cast made for a farce with disrespectful sexualized innuendo. The sound was so poor that in the beginning of the second act we could not hear the actor at all. Quiet with poor enunciation. Then loud screaming (song?).... I wear hearing aids and had turned them all the way up to try to discern what the actor was saying, and then was painfully grabbing them out of my ears. Had to go to Audiologist then referred to ENT next morning for damage to one of my eardrums! We left immediately. We have premier Season Ticket parking, and the lot had emptied by at least 1/3 by intermission. I can't imagine what the cast was thinking watching audience leave in a steady stream. A waste of talent, time and money. This is unusual for this venue. But now twice this year the "new versions"were disappointing.

Kam from Seattle, Washington

EVERYONE IN 1969 MUST HAVE BEEN ON ACID

I agree with all the people who gave this one star and left at intermission. But I can’t agree that this was a bad production of a good show. There was hardly any music, and what there was was eminently forgettable. The opening number, which you would think would set the tone for the show and so should get the writers’ best shot, alternates endlessly between the lyrics “Sit down John” and “Somebody open a window”—not a trace of dramatic tension, nothing to do with the subject matter. Other song choices were equally purposeless. Not a single good tune or well-turned lyric within hailing distance. As for the current casting, the diction of 9/10 of the performers was so poor that without a digital doom scroll to the left of the stage no one would’ve been been able to understand much of what they were saying. In common with a number of other reviewers, I have seen high school productions that were considerably more enjoyable.

Natsumi from Seattle, Washington

BORING

Hard to sit through and very lackluster. Actors and venue were amazing, but the story and script was awful.

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