I never saw this until I met Hallie 18 years ago. It's the story of the debate over the American colonies' debate over independence in the summer of 1776 in Philadelphia. When I was a kid, it always looked boring and when I was an adult it didn't seem to show up anymore on tv. I really like it. I really only knew William Daniels (John Adams), Howard Da Silva (Ben Franklin), and Ken Howard (Thomas Jefferson) from tv shows. To see them sing and dance was a fun revelation. It's a strange musical in that there are several long songless periods, but it doesn't matter. The songs are terrific, and the cast is so much fun. Roger Ebert declared the songs unmemorable, but I don't know what he was smoking. If you aren't grabbed by "Sit Down, John," "Piddle, Twiddle and Resolve," and "But Mr. Adams" I just don't know what to say. Apparently, the history is off-kilter in parts, but I think it still gets the basic arguments over whether to declare independence right - the place of slavery, lingering loyalty to England, the risk of war to colonial wealth, etc.
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