We all have a mental image of Benjamin Franklin, thanks to the $100 bill: balding, middle-aged, with tiny glasses and a stern look.
But what if he had a full head of hair poking out the sides of his tricorn? What if we saw Franklin singing and jamming on a guitar?
The Sound of America, a new musical showing at FringeArts this month, imagines Franklin as a young man: America’s very first rock star who finds fame after discovering electric rock and roll from the power of a lightning strike.
In the musical, he gains fame and fortune as a rock star. But stardom sweeps him up and pulls him away from the people and values that once defined him as a struggling musician, leaving him to question his true identity.
Leading the ensemble cast is a newly minted Temple musical theater graduate, Kohl Pilgrim. Last week, he stood with fellow actors Federica Andino-Vega and Jameson May, who play Franklin’s wife Deborah Read and his best friend Hugh Meredith, respectively.
Delivering their lines and singing at microphone stands, Nashville Bluebird Cafe-style, the three practiced blocking the scene where Franklin and Read first meet. After a flirty exchange, a naive and confused Franklin finds out Read is married to a man who has disappeared without evidence of his death.
“We tend to see [Founding Fathers] as these infallible perfect people who created the perfect society,” director and Temple professor Kyle Metzger said. “It’s exciting to see a young Founding Father making mistakes and being complex and messy. It’s important to remember these were people, too, who didn’t have all the answers and were trying their best.”
Setting out to write a write a rock musical, the choice of protagonist was a no-brainer for the musical’s cocreator and Emmy-award winning producer Randall Lane and longtime friend and singer-songwriter Todd Schwartz.
“Under Poor Richard, he was the lyricist for colonial America,” said Lane, referring to Franklin’s pseudonym under which he published a yearly almanac. “And then when he discovered the lightning rod, he literally became the first American who was world famous, and toured the world.”
Just like a young rock star.
Lane, who is also the editor in chief of Forbes magazine, lives in Saratoga Springs but feels deeply connected to Philadelphia through the years he went to Penn to study history and political science.
For him, Franklin “checked every box.”
“He was a teenage fugitive who ran away from home and every Friday he was hanging out [at] the Leather Apron Club,” the mutual-improvement society Franklin and his friends founded in 1727, said Lane.
Every week, they’d meet in taverns, “jamming out intellectual ideas,” said Lane. In the case of his musical, they create a garage band.
Franklin, after all, invented the glass harmonica.
The musical’s soundtrack includes 23 original songs cowritten by Lane and Schwartz, influenced by Queen, Nirvana, Bruce Springsteen, and the Beatles. Metzger describes the production as “80% rock concert, 20% musical.”
The cast will serve as narrators at the front of the stage, while a live band plays behind them. Floor seats will be available and swaying arms and singing along will be highly encouraged. It’s meant to feel like a concert and not just another historical “rock” musical (sorry, Hamilton).
“I’m always drawn to theater that’s untraditional or pushing into other mediums or incorporating other art forms,” Metzger said.
True to style, The Sound of America also doubles as a walking tour led by Pilgrim, still in character as Benjamin Franklin. After curtain call, audiences can participate in a tour of Franklin’s Old City house and grave, a short walk away from the FringeArts venue.
Needless to say, Pilgrim has had to really pack on the homework for this portion of the show.
“Most of my free time when I am not in rehearsal or with friends, I am home reading his autobiography,” he said. “I am reading anything I possibly can because there’s probably going to be a kid that’s like ‘What’s his favorite food? Did he like burgers?’ So I’m researching that, too.”
When asked about Franklin’s favorite drink, Pilgrim was certain it was wine. As for his hypothetical Jersey Shore vacation spot, Pilgrim named Cape May.
“I think he would like the houses,” he said.
“I want to pay homage to how honest, wise, and hard-working he was,” said the actor, who sought inspiration from iconic rock figures like David Lee Roth, Elvis Presley, and Sir Roger Daltrey, frontman of the Who.
Daltrey, in fact, makes a remote cameo in the musical, in support of Teen Cancer America, the nonprofit he founded along with Who bandmate Pete Townshend.
Lane and Schwartz’s royalties will be donated to the charity, which partners with Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). The production is also collaborating with Federal Donuts & Chicken for a specialty doughnut called “The Ben”; a portion of its sales will benefit the cause.
“We want this to be a really big win to fight cancer, but we think that it’s also super true to the spirit of Benjamin Franklin,” Lane said. “He was a rock star in all the senses, but he was also somebody who really cared about where he lived, and we want to leave Philadelphia better than we found it.”
But as with any rock star, Franklin’s story would be nothing without his entourage.
In addition to wife Read and bestie Meredith, the ensemble cast includes British antagonist Lord Wedderburn, played by Kaedon Knight and Franklin’s illegitimate son William Temple Franklin (aka “WTF”), played by Gerson Malave.
Read is the only female character in the show, accompanying Franklin on his journey to stardom. Though she is often forgotten in history, her common-law marriage to Franklin saw her holding down the Franklin household and publishing company with a shotgun during the unrest of the Stamp Act.
“She was a baddie, the baddie on Market Street,” Andino-Vega said. “But [Franklin] got most of the spotlight just because she was very shy and a bit illiterate. I want to shine a light on those special ladies that have been forgotten, and bring them up a little more in a way where they can also be seen like Ben Franklin.”
The cast and crew, largely Philadelphia-based and/or raised, are deeply committed to reflecting the grit of the city through this unique portrayal, especially in light of the 250th anniversary of the nation.
“It’s almost like Ben was talking to us saying this year’s really important and this summer is important to Philadelphia,” Lane said. “It gives everybody that visits Philly a reminder that Philadelphia was the birthplace of democracy and it’s the soul of America.”
The Sound of America runs July 1-Aug. 1 at FringeArts, 140 N. Christopher Columbus Blvd. Tickets start at $60. soundofamericamusical.com, 215-413-1318, or hello@fringearts.com.
A previous version of the article misidentified the actors playing Hugh Meredith and Lord Wedderburn. Jameson May and Kaedon Knight play the characters respectively.
