1776 Redux

A few weeks ago Amazon.com gave me free 2-day delivery, so the CD of 1776 which I ordered just in case they called me back for Ben Franklin arrived last night. Playing it in the car on my way to work & to & from lunch, I am now elated I was able to back out of the show gracefully.

The music sucks.

I would call the lyrics juvenile, except I do not want to insult my friends who write young adult books.

There is a disturbing running theme of "I want to get home and jump into bed with my wife" which is all out of proportion to what one would expect from a bunch of convention-attending politicians. To show how out of touch with reality this is, there are only two women in the show (both at home, writing to their husbands) and one of them is Mrs. Jefferson. Ahem. She sings a song about how "Tom's" fiddle playing won her heart. Double ahem. I don't think the authors had his other kind of fiddling around in mind.

Nothing in this score is remotely operatic, so far there are no memorable melodies. IMHO it's not worthy of the company formerly known as the Gilbert & Sullivan Society of San Jose.