Those “Cool, Cool Considerate Men” are on stage at the Lancaster Opera House, in 1176 The Musical, and while this show doesn’t make the rounds as often as it should, it’s a fine way to remember what our Founding Fathers faced 250 years ago, this time with a great score penned by a former high school history teacher and Brill Building songwriter Sherman Edwards. (Here’s a 716 fun-fact: Edwards also co-wrote the music for the 1962 pop hit “Johnny Get Angry” recorded by Buffalo gal Joanie Sommers.)

But I digress. This production is quite fine, with a stellar cast and some of the best singing to grace a local stage. My one quibble is that the orchestra for this show – which is superb, under Fran Landis’ direction – often over-powered the singers, making those important lyrics a challenge to hear.

If you kids think American history was first told on stage by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Hamilton, 1776 The Musical won the Tony Award in 1969 for Best Musical (it was up against Hair, which is ironically on stage at Shea’s 710 in an outstanding production by MusicalFare). Miranda admits that he discovered the film version of 1776 while in college and it helped pave the way to Hamilton.

In this production, Jon May is John Adams, called obnoxious and disliked for his passion for independency. May is exceptional in this role: I particularly loved his duets with Michelle Holden as Abigail Adams, especially “Yours, Yours, and Yours”. The power of their exquisite voices are well-matched (but oh, if only their volume was amped up above the music just a few degrees) and their harmonies are sweet on the ears. Holden as Abigail has only a few scenes and they were fine. Another thing that caught my ear: Bernie Sheredy as Benjamin Franklin sounded uncannily like Rex Everhart who played the role in the original Broadway cast (Everhart was the understudy and is on the Original Cast Recording.) Sheredy’s was another powerful performance, along with the other colonists. Allinee Negron as Martha Jefferson’s cover of “He Plays the Violin” was also charming and her voice is elegant. The (really long) first act ends with the simple and poignant “Momma Look Sharp,” sung by Isaiah Franklin, the Courier. What a powerful reminder of what was really happening beyond that hot and fly-filled room in Philadelphia. Franklin’s rendition drove the message home perfectly.

Timmy Goodman did fine work in selecting quality and authentic costumes here and Tara Kaczorowski’s set design made the most of this small stage with many colonists upon it. One element was a distraction: the projection screen against the rough-hewn red brick was just looked wrong. It was period-inappropriate, of course, and it was too small to have impact anyway (It looks like they were projecting images of the letters between John and Abigail?)  J. Michael Landis moved his cast across the stage expertly.

1776 The Musical is an outstanding production with a fine cast. There’s nothing better than hearing a live orchestra (albeit too loudly for the room), and enjoying local talent performing with the whole hearts.

The show runs well over two hours (that really long first act…) until October 11. Grab your quill and get there before the ink dries. Find details and tickets at https://www.lancasteropera.org/.

Note: the director’s notes in the playbill said that this was the last musical that the late David Bondrow selected for this season. He would be very proud of this production for sure.