Two summer theater series have launched their seasons with shows about legendary Americans who lived two centuries apart.
1776 is a historic musical not merely because it's about a chapter of American history, but also because it's something of a historic achievement itself.
How else would you describe Peter Stone and Sherman Edwards' successful transformation of the signing of the Declaration of Independence - a pivotal but potentially dry episode - into moving musical theater?
When the curtain rises on Cockpit in Court's main stage, the tableau of the Second Continental Congress created by designer James J. Fasching is as striking as a museum painting.
But director Todd Starkey's production is hardly a static tableau or pageant. One of the many achievements of this unlikely musical is the human face it puts on the folks in the history books.
John Adams, the show's protagonist, forcefully portrayed and sung by John Desmone, is aggressive, tenacious and single-minded. Benjamin Franklin, warmly played by Dave Shannon, is a jovial senior statesman - but equally single-minded when it comes to pressing for independence.
Even the lesser characters are distinguished by highly human foibles - Chase of Maryland eats too much; Hopkins of Rhode Island drinks too much.
Though there are some overly long stretches between songs, several of the musical numbers are cleverly staged. "But Mr. Adams," in which Adams, Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston argue over who will write the declaration, features smooth harmony and amusing choreography; at one point Adams has to physically restrain his colleagues' gleeful dancing. And "Cool, Cool Considerate Men," in which Pennsylvania's right-wing Dickinson (John Amato) leads a chorus of conservatives, features neatly synchronized moves, including a little minuet, all punctuated by the percussive tapping of walking sticks.
But it is Peter McClung's fierce, booming delivery of the solo "Molasses to Rum" - South Carolinian Edward Rutledge's blunt account of the slave trade - that justifiably stops the show.
The six-person pit orchestra, under the musical direction of R. Christopher Rose, lends stirring fife-and-drum-flavored accompaniment. And in an appropriate bit of casting, Mr. and Mrs. John Adams are played by a real-life husband and wife, with Deborah Desmone's lilting voice blending beautifully with that of her husband.
Indeed, just about the only regrettable aspect of this production is that it closes before July 4. Patriots and musical theater fans have only this weekend left to catch its Independence Day spirit.
Show times at Cockpit, on the Essex campus of the Community College of Baltimore County, 7201 Rossville Blvd., are 8 p.m. tonight-Saturday, and 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $13 and $15. For more information, call 410-780-6369.
Physics and mathematics might once have seemed abstruse subject matter to dramatize, but that was before Copenhagen and Proof, not to mention the Academy Award-winning movie A Beautiful Mind.
Still, playwright Victoria Danos has her work cut out for her in The Blue Eye of Robert Oppenheimer, Fell's Point Corner Theatre's opening production in this year's Baltimore Playwrights Festival. Danos wisely narrows her focus to one aspect in the complex life of the man who became known as "the father of the atom bomb."
That aspect is the stringent approval process Oppenheimer went through to become director of the Los Alamos lab where the bomb was developed. The play is narrated by the title character, who takes such a major role in telling his own story, it makes you wonder if the drama might work as a one-man show.
Under Barry Feinstein's direction, Chris Graybill's assured, thoughtful performance is the highlight of production. The Oppenheimer whom Graybill and Danos show us is a largely misunderstood intellectual whose speech is peppered with references ranging from the Bhagavad-Gita to Faust. He also has more than enough connections to current or former Communists - including his emotionally unstable mistress (Cherie Weinert) and his brother (Joseph M. Dunn) - to give the military brass reason for concern.
As Gen. Leslie Groves, Los Alamos' military chief, Russell Wooldridge delivers an earnest depiction of an efficient leader determined to see to it that Oppenheimer gets the job. However, some of the secondary portrayals of scientists and military men feel stilted.
But the play has a larger problem. Part of the script seems to want to be a detective story, especially when undercover agents are stationed on the edges of the stage, haunting Oppenheimer and his family. But the bulk of the action - the debate over the physicist's suitability - takes place off-stage (probably in Washington), with the outcome being announced to Oppenheimer by Groves.
According to the playwright, the unusual use of the singular word "Eye" in the title is intended to have multiple meanings; it can refer to an inner eye, a mystical eye, possibly even the eye of enlightenment. Considering the structure of the play, it could also mean that the story is seen through the eye of its protagonist.
Oppenheimer's story is challenging on many levels, and though Danos' account isn't always up to the challenge, she deserves credit for taking it on - particularly in these times when talk of bombs, war and dangerous ties to foreign regimes is once again part of our daily lives.
Show times at Fell's Point Corner, 251 S. Ann St., are 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and 7 p.m. Sundays, through July 7. Tickets are $11 and $12. Call 410-276-7837.
'Witness' canceled
The three-performance engagement of Witness: A Celebration of Poetry and Song, originally scheduled to open tonight at the Theatre Project, has been canceled. Collective Cry, the local outreach company producing the program of short pieces, felt the new works were not ready for a full production, according to Theatre Project producing director Anne Cantler Fulwiler. For more information, call 410-752-8558.
Auditions
Harford Dance Theatre. Auditions for annual production of The Nutcracker. 11 a.m. July 28 in Room SO12 (dance studio) at the Susquehanna Center on the Harford Community College campus in Bel Air, 401 Thomas Run Road. Needed are performers ages 8 through adult. Dance auditions will include full warm-ups followed by a variation of acting exercises. Actors will participate in acting exercises and/or simple steps of choreography. Performance dates are Dec. 5-8.