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Arts and Entertainment Editor Bob Sokolsky says we should look at it this way:

It took our founding fathers a while to write the Declaration of Independence and form a new nation. So why shouldn't a dramatization of their efforts some time to get stage momentum?

Sokolsky says it's always been that way with the 40-year old musical, "1776," and it is still that way in this engagement at the Rialto Playhouse. He calls it a show with a first act that seems to run forever, but is actually not that long. And once it gets past that obstacle it becomes a stirring production.

Jason Livesay’s Thomas Jefferson and Stephen Van Dorn's Edward Routledge are singled out for special praise. However, Sokolsky says, there are a good share of other solid performances.

He also applauds director Diana Combs and choreographer Michael Milligan for the movement of their cast through a small theater, making good use of their entire space.