Recreating the Continental Congress of May through July of the year of its title, a musical centering on debate comes out firmly in the affirmative in a production as warm as summer. So realistically presented are the viewpoints challenging John Adams, we seem to be in the crowded Philadelphia "court" and...is that suspense we feel? Gary Marachek's firm Adams grounds the action with help from Robert Turoff's alternatingly wise and funny ole Ben Franklin. Hopping in with humorous heroics is Ben Turoff's Richard Henry Lee, a nice counterpart to Chris O'Brockto's serious Jefferson. The latter gets the only explicit love scene, with a pretty new bride played by Aubry Ludington. But the crowning romance is depicted in correspondence “spoken” between Adams and wife Abigail, said and beautifully sung by soprano Cynthia Heininger. (She and Marachek repeat their roles of nine years past in freshest fashion.)
Richard Bigelow, scheduled to replace Marachek as Adams in the final weeks of the run, exhibits strength of voice as southerner Edward Rutledge, defending slave-owning with "Molasses to Rum." Michael Bajjaly's Dickinson is fearsome head of the Conservatives, depicted as "Cool, Cool Considerate Men." Nick Darrow's
Courier brings in reminders of the common people and of George Washington out fighting with and for them. Extending to John Visser's accompaniment, the ensemble work pays off, never lowering interest. A special “colonial type” dinner before the show is tasty, too.
