Five members of the Continental Congress discuss some disagreements during a scene in Community Little Theatre’s production of “1776.” From left are Roger Philippon as Ben Franklin, Grayson Smith as Thomas Jefferson, Mark Dils as John Adams, John Blanchette as John Dickinson, and Gerry Therrien as Edward Rutledge. Submitted photo

“A republic, if you can keep it.” — Benjamin Franklin

This isn’t the first time Lewiston-Auburn Community Little Theatre has staged “1776,” a musical celebrating the events that led to the signing of our Declaration of Independence.

But, it may be even more important to see it now than it was when CLT first staged “1776” in the bicentennial year of 1976.

Not to mention that’s it’s entertaining. Apart from the CLT production’s strong acting and singing, the message rings as true today as it must have rung in 1776 when the bells tolled on Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

The clear message is of the value of compromise as the path to achieving a higher goal.

Benjamin Franklin told Elizabeth Powell in 1787, on finalizing the Constitution, the framers had created “a republic, if you can keep it.” Keeping that republic in 2024 makes this production of “1776” as important as it is entertaining.

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And entertaining is the most important task of any musical, as well as, if possible, to charm and even uplift. The CLT production certainly meets all three standards. More about that in a minute.

Set mostly in the chamber of Independence Hall, “1776” challenges Director Celeste Philippon to engage a cast of 22 men, three women and two teenagers and, perhaps more daunting, to fit as many as 24 of them onto the stage at once. Philippon, like the cast, was up to the challenge.

The play makes human the men — yes, the delegates were all men — who crafted our republic.

The opening establishes the lines of dispute as delegates gradually unite to launch our grand experiment As John Adams grapples with the realization that he is unpopular with his peers, the chorus of 17 sings, “Sit down, John,” imploring him to join the flies on the wallpaper. (In the heat of a Philadelphia summer, the script made it clear the hall hosted plenty of flies.)

At first, he has just one solid ally, but who could ask for a better ally than Benjamin Franklin? Thomas Jefferson soon joins, completing the trio of key players.

The Congress forms — but not without disagreement — a committee to draft a declaration, but no one on the committee wants the job of writing it. Finally, it falls to Jefferson. And to the entire Congress to whack about 400 words from it. (As a recovering copy editor, I admire anyone who can whittle a document down to 1,320 words from more than 1,700.)

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As the draft goes through this editing, we see two delegations blocking unanimity, Pennsylvania and South Carolina. Pennsylvania because lead delegate John Dickinson feels the colonies can still reconcile with King George III, and South Carolina because Jefferson has framed a final clause condemning slavery. (Jefferson, too, was an enslaver.)

So it falls to Franklin and Jefferson to twist and turn the delegates onto the path of unity. Adams keeps his cool, mostly, and stays out of the argument, though often strategizing with Franklin.

Eventually, Franklin persuades Pennsylvania delegate James Wilson to vote for independence, and Jefferson fumingly agrees to drop the slavery clause in order to secure the vote of Edward Rutledge of South Carolina. Georgia and North Carolina follow, and the deal is done.

To be sure, “1776” takes liberties with precise history. But it holds true to the personalities and events of history, and delightfully shows the characters as humans, several showing a bawdy side and many displaying foibles we all recognize in people we know and in today’s politicians.

In bringing all of this to the stage, director Philippon assembled a strong cast.

Sarah Duncan, left, and Danielle Robichaud portray Abigail Adams and Martha Jefferson, respectively, in Community Little Theatre’s current production of the musical “1776.” Submitted photo

Mark Dils balances John Adams’ brilliance and arrogance well, making him an admirable and almost sympathetic character.

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Roger Philippon brings Franklin to life as both wise and comedic, and perhaps a bit curmudgeonly. And he bears the weight of Franklin’s legacy well.

Grayson Smith makes clear Jefferson’s internal struggles as he fights to save the anti-slavery clause, then yields to its exclusion in order to save the project. History will debate forever the merits and demerits of this compromise.

John Blanchette plays Dickinson so well as steadfast to a fault that in the end, when Dickinson refuses to sign the document but vows to join the Continental Army, no one should be surprised.

Gerry Therrien has the tough job of playing Edward Rutledge of South Carolina, accent and all, as one standing on principle albeit an evil principle. Also a man of his word who, after Jefferson compromises, stands by his vow to vote yea.

These lead players are backed by terrific character actors. Jim McKinley is the put-upon custodian – “McNair, open the window; McNair, close the window” – who serves every whim of the delegates, including fetching endless mugs of rum for Duane Glover, who portrays Stephen Hopkins of Rhode Island. Hopkins is often tipsy but still manages to do his job as a delegate.

Delaware’s Caesar Rodney, played by Phil Vampatella, mostly suffers through his cancer and the drawn-out debate with the tough task of staying alert while appearing to be dying. (Rodney, fetched for the final vote from what all thought was his deathbed, lived eight more years.)

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Three actors perform well as toadies: Dan Kane as Pennsylvania’s Wilson, always voting as Dickinson wants, until in the end he defies his master; Nicole Emery as North Carolina’s John Hewes, always yielding to Rutledge of South Carolina; and Chris Kuhlthau as New York’s Lewis Morris, never willing to take a stand without instructions from back home.

Strong character roles are played by Dan Crawford as Delaware’s Col. Thomas McKean, a native Scot who defended Scotland as strongly as he defended independence, and Jeff Fairfield as Connecticut’s Roger Sherman, a somewhat reluctant member of the drafting committee who passed the buck readily, and by Rowland Hazard, a courier bringing dispatches from the front.

I can’t end without celebrating the singing of Sarah Duncan as Abigail Adams, who appears to her husband as if she were in the room with him, as, in real life, she often appeared to him at crucial times. Duncan’s solos may have drawn the strongest applause of all.

A final note of respect for choreographer Eileen Messina, who had to set up blocking that squeezed nearly the entire cast onto the stage without tripping over one another. And to all the actors who spend most of their stage time listening to other actors yet never seem uninvolved, save Franklin, who is given to the odd nap.

I dare you to watch the final vote of the delegates without breaking out in goosebumps.

If the production has a downside, it is that too few actors use microphones. Sitting in the fourth row and in the second row on the two nights I attended, I sometimes didn’t hear all the lines.

“1776,” the musical, continues Thursday, Oct. 31, through Saturday, Nov. 2, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 3, at 2 p.m. at the Community Little Theatre, (the former Great Falls School), 30 Academy St. in Auburn. For tickets and information call (207) 783-0958; email: info@laclt.com; or email: boxoffice@laclt.com.

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