1776

BY ED BRUCE edbrucevegas@yahoo.com

One of three outdoor plays at the Super Summer Theatre....West Charleston, 23 miles out of Las Vegas at the Spring Mountain Ranch.....71 degrees (18 cooler than Las Vegas).....full moon....how do you like it so far ! ! !

I have seen this brilliant musical comedy by Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone three times and for me it is not yet enough. The script is the gig....what the hell.... the making of the Declaration of Independence is a pretty good story ! ! !

I do this play simply for the history factor and then they throw in fine actors (singers) with a ten piece orchestra and lovely production and staging....its a home run for me !

Every year different production companys put on these plays and the big picture is they have improved every year in the entire experience. The staff is wonderful (volunteers)....they have built a covered stage with dressing rooms and made the sound system almost perfect !

I always grade these shows against the big three...TOO LATE...TOO LOUD....TOO DARK ! July 17th started right on time....it was not too loud altho the horns occasionaly challenged some of the fine lyrics (gosh...writing lyrics and then enunciating so the audience can here them....what a novel idea....successful here)...not too dark with good lighting....spotlights and solos pretty efficient....room to improve !

I just love the history here and they succeeded here in telling me the story.....I could see the good guys and the bad guys and enjoyed them all. In the Utah Shakespeare production of course the acting was world class, especially with Peter Sham playing Ben Franklin, so the bar was high for him....and Franklin here was the weak link in the armor...missing some lines and standing out as a novice against a brilliant John Adams played by Nick Caruso and an equally fine Thomas Jefferson played by Joey Debenedetto. I would have loved to see a couple of my heroes (Alexander Hamilton and George Washington in the play but they seemed to be occupied with 25,ooo British troops in New York harbor. The songs by Joe Hynes as Richard Henry Lee, Mark Weinberg as Edward Rutledge and Kyle Van Son as the courier were show stoppers for me...I could go for these three every night. Besides the big three John Dickerson...played by Chris Mayse provided the perfect adversary for Declaration !

I learn more each time I see the show and recommend it to the world...its only ten bucks...you take the family and a picnic and have a grand time. Unfortunately there always some nerds with cell phones, video machines and video games at every show and they always know where I am seated so as to distract from attention to the task at hand....needless to say they were out of control this night...capitol punishment would kill two birds with one shot here ! ! ! Why go ?

My esteemed colleague with the local paper did not approve of this production going for a C.....it was an A- 93 for me....like the Beattles music if you just follow the script you got a winner.
There were some alterations to good made here since my colleagues review, the first time I saw the show and last night....maybe we serve a purpose here...everything is subject to taste and everybodys is different...we are all entitled to edit. I LOVED THIS SHOW ! Thank you Super Summer Theatre for two lovely evenings !