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1776 Reviews

Pre BroadwayMusicals

Average customer review: 2.0 star rating (2.1 Stars)

Number of reviews: 34

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1.0 star rating E from San Diego, California

GOOD ACTING - BAD EVERYTHING ELSE.

We have season tickets and took friends to see this one. Absolutely dreadful -- we left at intermission. Weirdly low amount of music, cheesy jokes, boring script. I read a review online that calls the show 'terminally woke' which is an accurate description. I have no issue with bringing politics in, but you still have to put on a show that is worth watching. Overall, I'd rather listen to the king's monologues from Hamilton and get more story and entertainment than from what we saw. Set design was lackluster, especially in context with some shows like Hadestown, Frozen, and Lion King that showed how much set design can contribute. On the plus side, the performance from Martha Jefferson was fabulous -- her voice is incredible and I wish the whole show revolved around that one character. In general, the actors did very well. Did laugh a few times. Seats and the theater itself are excellent.

1.0 star rating JF from San Diego, California

INTERMINABLE

This is the first time in my life that I left a show at intermission. It just dragged, with a lot of talk, 75% of which was incomprehensible, and not much music. I have no problem with the concept of non-traditional casting, but some of the choices just didn’t make sense. Thomas Jefferson, who was over 6’ tall, was played by a very slight actor, and the actor who played his wife towered over him. It just made all of their scenes together not ring true. Some of the actors had excellent singing voices, but the accents they employed when speaking their lines, presumably to make them sound like colonial Americans, not only made it very difficult to understand them, but in most cases, just sounded amateurish. A few of the actors, most specifically those portraying Richard Henry Lee and Benjamin Franklin, seemed to think they were playing in a farcical version of the play; there was plenty of chewing of the scenery by these 2, in particular. Over-acting was rampant throughout. I felt as though I was at a high school production. No offense to high schoolers intended. My husband was nodding off during the first act; I held his hand, squeezing it occasionally to keep him awake. I can’t guarantee that I’d have been able to remain conscious myself for another hour plus in order to keep him from falling asleep. The first act was 75 minutes long. I thought it would never end.

1.0 star rating Nancy B from San Diego, California

WORST SHOW I’VE SEEN IN SAN DIEGO

Perhaps the show is clever and entertaining, but we could hardly make out the dialogue. I don’t know what the problem was, because I’ve never had that occur at the Civic for any show before. We had many empty seats around us, and by the time the intermission began, numerous rows around us cleared out. We tried sticking it out for the 2nd half, but ultimately going home sounded far better than staying and straining to make sense of it all. Awful. It’s too bad, because some of the singing voices on stage were brilliant. Abigail and Martha were stand outs. Unfortunately, we didn’t know what they were singing about most of the time.

1.0 star rating Josh Bych from San Diego, CA

NOT WORTH IT

Costumes were awful. Music was boring. Very low budget. Totally unbelievable overall at this price.

1.0 star rating Nancy Williams from San Jose, California

DISAPPOINTED

There was so much wrong hard to know where to begin. The singing was hard to understand. Boring, confusing! “Hamilton Move Over” give me a break! NO COMPARISON! We left at intermission with several others!

1.0 star rating Arnon from San Jose, California

I COULD NOT UNDERSTAND A WORD

It was the combination of muffled audio with actresses' forced intonation coupled with English being my second language. My wife kept asking me what did they say, what foes it mean? We could still follow the main story line only because it was very simple and stretched over a very long play. Later I talked with my friends, who were born in San Jose and Iive here more than half a century, and to my surprise they also did not understand much of the conversations. So it's not only me. Other reviews already mentioned the unusual women only cast for a show that is mostly men roles. That did not work well for me either. It feels to me that the cast was selected primarily for the purpose of making a political social statement, rather than creating a good play. It's the director's and producer's statement, not the actresses who did what they were told to. I did not like this show, sorry.

1.0 star rating S Butler from Charlotte, North Carolina

JUST AWFUL

I am an avid theater goer and this is the first time I’ve ever walked out of a show. It was that bad. I love 1776 and couldn’t wait to see this. But there was no rhyme or reason to destroy this wonderful show with bad sets bad acting and lackluster singing. I think the actors knew it too with a low energy cast that seemed like they couldn’t wait to get it over with. Save your money.

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