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Video: Go Inside Opening Night for 1776 on Broadway
May 17, 2024
There is a revolution happening on Broadway! Roundabout Theatre Company and the American Repertory Theater's new Broadway production of 1776, directed by Jeffrey L. Page and Diane Paulus, opened officially at Roundabout's American Airlines Theatre on Broadway. BroadwayWorld was there for the big night and were taking you inside the festivities in this video.
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It is extraordinary
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It's breathtaking. We're making history. Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World
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Following a critically acclaimed sold-out run at ART in Cambridge, Diane Paulus and Jeffrey L. Page's brilliant, reimagined 1776
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has come to Broadway's Roundabout Theater. And I caught up with a company just an hour or so
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before their opening night curtain went up. I feel like my little heart's going to explode
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I feel great. Adrenaline is pumping. You hear me? It is pumping
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But I'm so excited to have gone through that process. And now I can say I'm on the other side of it now
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Very exciting. Oh, I feel incredible. This has been such a long journey to get here
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And to be with this group of people who have become my family to tell this story
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It's just incredible. pinching myself. I am in a deep state of gratitude. This has been on hold for two to two and a
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half years, so the opportunity to be here in person performing for a live audience in such a
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provocative show, a meaningful show, it means the world to me. So gratitude is my deepest emotion
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It's crazy. After 25 years of regional theater being on the road and just continuing to keep
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the faith and just journeymen working performers, you know. And if it came in, it's a little bit of
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came if it didn't I wasn't going to stop so I'm to be actually here is pretty damn good I was
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the new member of the company I I joined for the Broadway you know production I did not get to do it
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at Cambridge but this company is so exciting so young and eager 15 Broadway debuts and they just bring such energy to the piece and that you know is contagious
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This is an extraordinary moment in our country and in our history, and to be able to match that with the creativity of this show, the concept of the show is just so special
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And to be able to feel surrounded by artists and people that really are caring for me in a personal way going through this personal journey
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And to be able to match that with a really rich, complex character journey has been amazing
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I am so excited to celebrate this production, to celebrate this gorgeous cast
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to bring theater goers like yourself who know and love the show out to see another version of this that reflects America today
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I'm excited for people who've never known of 1776 to discover it
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And I'm really, really proud. I'm proud of our journey. We've been waiting to do this since 2019
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We survived the challenges of this ongoing pandemic, and here we are opening night
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Working with Diane Paulus has been extremely special, working with this cast
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This is a cast of, of course, gender non-binary folks, trans folks, women folks, black folks, white folks
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folks of all of the spectrum, activists, researchers, thought leaders, and that has made it
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challenging and rigorous and absolutely special. One, having the opportunity to work with Diane Paulus and Jeffrey Page has just been an
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absolute honor getting to know and getting to learn from this incredible cast of wonderful and talented humans And then also not only being able to portray Roger Sherman one of our founding fathers but also being able to represent my tribe my heritage and indigenous people everywhere
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Truly, to be surrounded by such powerful people who embody different things, genders and race and bodies that are so underrepresented
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And it's not a gimmick. It's not something to be woke. It's just allowing the people that we are to play characters
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play characters, and you can see them in a different way. That's so incredible to me, and it makes me happy every day
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Oh, my gosh, it was brilliance. It was confusion. It was lit a fire under you, frustrated you
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because that combination, that soup, is really about trying to create the best work possible
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And so what you have to pull from as an artist means that they're hard days
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and then really, really rewarding days. So I so respect Diane and Jeffrey
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and this process and the intention on what they're attempting to do
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which is not just about having a diverse cast, playing roles that men play
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but really about attempting to shift the gaze of the way we look at and experience history
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through these 2022 bodies. And that's not an easy task. So it runs the spectrum of emotion
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but I'm very grateful that my artistry has improved. because of it, because of the opportunity
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I've really had an interesting journey as an artist trying to connect with him
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in a way that normally doesn't happen in theater or TV or film
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because usually you drop who you are to be this person. And in Diane Paulus and Jeffrey Page's iteration, revival
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we are ourselves when we walk on that stage. I am a heightened version of Gisela Edisa you know and I bringing everything that I have known in my years on this earth to that character and to that perspective
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This journey together has been a deep journey of learning, of identity, of conversation, of discussion, of wrestling
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with this reckoning, with our flawed American history, with, compromises that were made at the same moment that America was putting a stamp down for aspirational
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values of freedom and equality, but for whom? Every single person who's on that stage would not have
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been allowed to step foot into Independence Hall and have a voice in the founding of this country
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So there is some amazing forward moment in this production that this cast is able to be on stage
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and they're able to say, see me, right? I'm not being erased by playing these characters
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but take in my identity as I step in the shoes of these founding fathers
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and this invitation to the audience to see both. Can you see the actor and all that they represent
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and also see the history? And that duality is what we're asking people to wrestle with
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It's humbling, you know, it's really, like, that people are loving it and responding to it
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Especially from this perspective, it's like, thank you, thank you. We've been on this particular journey for a while, but we started in April, and then we were at A.R.T
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With it, and the audiences just loved it. People came back multiple times and brought friends with them
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so I hope the same thing happens right here at the Roundabout
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