1776

The year 1776 probably strikes you as familiar as the year the Declaration of Independence was approved by a congress of representatives from the original 13 colonies established in the English governed area of North America. It is also the name of a musical play that has been performed since 1969 and tells the story of how the Declaration of Independence was finally agreed to by this very diverse group meeting in Philadelphia that hot summer. I'm sure that some creative license was taken in making the story more of a cliffhanger than you might have imagined.

Virtually all the action takes place in Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the stage is set to make it appear we're looking through invisible walls as we listen in and watch John Adams and Benjamin Franklin scheme and manipulate their way through to first getting Thomas Jefferson to write the Declaration of Independence and then getting unanimous consent of the Congress to the Declaration. Lots of good humorous lines and for some reason the audience found the digs at an impotent congress especially funny. Maybe they still see the humor in today's congress? Of course it was dangerous business committing treason against the king when that was still a capital crime.

Two days ago my Random Event Generator emailed me a short note asking if I'd like to see 1776 which just happens to be the closing musical for this year's Musical Circus season. It's been a couple of years now since we've seen a play in the Musical Circus so we decided to make this the opening event in our celebration of our 40th wedding anniversary. Rather than do one big thing we will do several "medium-big" things (and I consider a play where the tickets cost $48 each medium big). A fellow church member Jeanette Compton who interned in stage production this year at the Music Circus got us the tickets which were about as good as you can get.

We had a light pre-play dinner at the Buckhorn Grill, a trendy place off the Capital plaza where Carolyn is already a "frequent diner". Nice place to eat. Good food and reasonable prices.