NEW YORK---When the outcome of a story is known to the audience long before the curtain even rises, the journey itself and the characters who make that journey become critical. It is the journey and characters we enjoy in the Broadway musical “1776,” a rousing concert version performed recently as part of the New York City Center’s Encores! series.
It’s late spring of the title year and the relationship between the British Crown and their 13 American colonies has been strained to the breaking point. Edicts from the mother country, including the Stamp Act and the Tea Act, have led to incidents of rebellion in the New World. Among them have been the Boston Tea Party and armed clashes at Bunker Hill, Lexington, and Concord.
With these events as a backdrop, the action takes place mainly at the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia. The musical details the efforts of John Adams (Santino Fontana) and his congressional allies, among them Benjamin Franklin (John Larroquette) and Thomas Jefferson (John Behlmann), to convince the colonies to officially declare their independence from Great Britain and form a new nation.
