1776 is a musical with music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards and a book by Peter Stone. The show is based on the events leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, telling a story of the efforts of John Adams to persuade his colleagues to vote for American independence and to sign the document. The show premiered on Broadway in 1969 where it received acclaim and won three Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The original production starred William Daniels as Adams, Ken Howard as Thomas Jefferson, and Howard Da Silva as Benjamin Franklin.
In 1972, it was adapted into a film, with eight of the original Broadway actors reprising their roles. It has received three New York revivals: on Broadway in 1997, an Encores! concert in 2016, and a 2022 Broadway production in which the racially diverse cast was entirely made up of people who identify as female, trans, or non-binary.
History In 1925, Rodgers and Hart wrote a Broadway musical about the American Revolution called Dearest Enemy.Green, Stanley. "Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre , pp. 373–74. Jefferson, N.C.: Da Capo Press, 1980. In 1950, another musical about the Revolution was presented on Broadway, titled Arms and the Girl, with music by Morton Gould, lyrics by Dorothy Fields, and book by Herbert Fields, Dorothy Fields and Rouben Mamoulian, the show's director.
Sherman Edwards, a jazz pianist and Brill Building pop songwriter who, decades prior, had minor roles in Broadway musicals, began developing lyrics and libretto for a musical based on the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Edwards recounted that "I wanted to show [the founding fathers] at their outermost limits. These men were the cream of their colonies. ... They disagreed and fought with each other. But they understood commitment, and though they fought, they fought affirmatively."Kantor and Maslon, pp. 328-49 He lived in close proximity to the Morristown Joint Free Public Library, which had in its collection an 1830-era publication of the letters of Abigail Adams and access via interlibrary loan to other letters Edwards sought."Sherman Edwards, Composer Of 1776", Daily Record, April 1, 1981. Accessed November 18, 2021, via Newspapers.com. "Parsippany - Sherman Edwards, who conceived, composed, and wrote the lyrics of the Broadway hit 1776, died Monday afternoon of a heart attack in a friend's home In New York City. He was 62, and lived on North Beverwyck Road, Boonton Manor." The first songs in the project were published and copyrighted by 1964. Producer Stuart Ostrow recommended that librettist Peter Stone collaborate with Edwards on the book of the musical. Stone recalled, The minute you heard ["Sit Down, John"], you knew what the whole show was. ... You knew immediately that John Adams and the others were not going to be treated as gods or cardboard characters, chopping down cherry trees and flying kites with strings and keys on them. It had this very affectionate familiarity; it wasn't reverential. Adams, the outspoken delegate from Massachusetts, was chosen as the central character, and his quest to persuade all 13 colonies to vote for independence became the central conflict. Stone confined nearly all of the action to Independence Hall and the debate among the delegates, and featuring two female characters, Abigail Adams and Martha Jefferson, in the musical.Kantor and Maslon, pp. 329Bloom and Vlastnik, pp. 285 After tryouts in New Haven, Conn., and Washington, D.C., the show opened on Broadway at the 46th Street Theatre on March 16, 1969. Peter Hunt directed.
Synopsis NOTE: The show can be performed in one or two acts.
Act I On May 8, 1776, the Second Continental Congress, convening in Philadelphia at present-day Independence Hall, proceeds with its business. John Adams, the controversial delegate from Braintree, Massachusetts, is frustrated because Congress will not even debate his proposals on independence. The other delegates, preoccupied with the rising heat, implore him to "Sit Down, John". Adams is frustrated that the Congress does nothing but "Piddle, Twiddle, and Resolve" as he imagines a conversation with his wife Abigail, who remains at the Adams homestead in Massachusetts and communicates by letter. Later, Adams meets delegate Benjamin Franklin, an elderly lecherous scamp, who suggests that Adams should let another, more popular delegate propose a resolution on independence and summons the charismatic Richard Henry Lee of Stratford, Virginia. Lee eagerly agrees to return to Virginia to procure an independence resolution from the Virginia House of Burgesses using his family's reputation and clout ("The Lees of Old Virginia").
Weeks later, new delegate Dr. Lyman Hall of Georgia arrives and is introduced to many important members of Congress, including Andrew McNair, the custodian; Stephen Hopkins of Rhode Island, an acerbic drunk; Edward Rutledge of South Carolina, the mysterious youngest delegate who leads the Congress's Southern caucus; and Caesar Rodney of Delaware, among others. As Congress is assembled, President John Hancock notes that the entire New Jersey delegation has been absent for quite some time. A gloomy dispatch from George Washington, commander of the Continental Army, arrives by courier and is read aloud by Secretary Charles Thomson. Shortly thereafter, Richard Henry Lee returns, bearing a resolution for independence. Elated, Adams seconds the motion to open debate on the resolution.
John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, a conservative and royal apologist, immediately moves to table the debate. The vote is close, but debate is ultimately approved, prompting Dickinson to denounce the desire for independence as an overreaction to petty squabbles with Great Britain. The debate becomes more heated and personal, sparking a physical fight between Dickinson and Adams and causing Caesar Rodney to intervene; Rodney collapses from cancer. Pro-independence Scotsman Thomas McKean escorts Rodney back to Delaware, leaving conservative George Read in control of Delaware's delegation. Read quickly seconds Rutledge's motion to end the debate and vote on independence, knowing it is likely to fail. At this moment, the Reverend John Witherspoon arrives, announcing that New Jersey's legislature has deposed its royal governor, Franklin's estranged loyalist son, and has sent Witherspoon as the new delegate with explicit instruction to vote for independence. Adams, now seeing a path to victory, pushes to proceed with the vote, since ties are broken by Hancock, an Adams ally who is also from Massachusetts.
Dickinson moves to require the vote for independence to be unanimous. The vote ends in a tie, but Hancock unexpectedly votes in favor of unanimity, explaining that if the colonies are divided, the crown will pit the colonies against each other.
Knowing that Dickinson will quash the resolution if the vote proceeds immediately, Adams moves to postpone the vote to buy time to rally the needed support; he proposes that Congress draft a Declaration of Independence to build support abroad for the cause. Again, the vote ties; this time, Hancock votes to postpone. Before they adjourn, John Hancock appoints a committee of Adams, Franklin, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Robert Livingston of New York, and Lee to draft the declaration. Lee informs the Congress that he has been appointed Governor of Virginia and departs, never to be seen again; Adams nominates another Virginian, the resident meteorologist Thomas Jefferson, who wants no part of the task as he is returning home to see his wife after six months. Jefferson is forced to accept the task after the other four explain why they cannot or should not ("But, Mr. Adams").
Adams sends for Jefferson's beloved wife Martha, reasoning that if Thomas cannot return to her, she can be summoned to him and potentially break his writer's block. When she arrives, she refuses to speak to Adams or Franklin and spends the night with her husband. Adams, alone, again exchanges letters with his wife Abigail ("Yours, Yours, Yours"). The next morning, Franklin and Adams again attempt to engage Martha in conversation; she speaks, but tersely, and talks of her courtship with Thomas ("He Plays the Violin"). Adams is delighted to find that Jefferson has written something, but instead of work on the declaration, it is a mere note asking for him and Martha to be left alone.
In June, with the Congress in what looks like a state of total lethargy, another grim dispatch from General Washington arrives, denouncing the Continental Army recruits as useless, undisciplined and outmatched, having fallen prey to numerous prostitutes at the camp in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Adams, sensing that Washington is exaggerating the crisis in hopes of securing more money, convinces Samuel Chase of Maryland to go with him to New Brunswick to test Chase's fears that the Revolutionary War is doomed to end in defeat; Franklin, eager to see the prostitutes for himself, tags along. The other liberals also leave the chamber; with only the conservatives left, and a cold front having brought down the ambient temperature, John Dickinson leads his congressional allies in a defense of their wealth, status and politics ("Cool, Cool Considerate Men"), during which the courier arrives with another gloomy Washington dispatch. The conservatives depart, leaving McNair, the courier (a Continental Army corporal from Watertown, Massachusetts), and a teenage "leather apron" (workman) alone in the chamber. As McNair begins a mock session as president pro tempore, he escorts the courier to Adams's seat; there, the courier and McNair discourage the leather apron from joining the Army as the courier recalls his friends' deaths at Lexington ("Momma Look Sharp").
Act II As Congress reconvenes in Philadelphia, Jefferson is outside the chamber while Thomson reads the completed draft of the declaration to the Congress. Adams and Franklin arrive, delighted: though the troops are indeed undisciplined, they showed exceptional shooting skill hunting waterfowl for dinner, and this convinced Chase to vote for independence. They congratulate Jefferson on his work, and Franklin compares the creation of this new country to the hatching of a bird, though they disagree on what kind ("The Egg").
On June 28, Hancock asks if there are any alterations to be offered to the Declaration of Independence. Many delegates voice suggestions, additions or deletions. Edward Rutledge of South Carolina objects in particular to a clause condemning the slave trade. He fiercely defends slavery as an institution, claiming that blacks are not people, that Jefferson is a hypocrite for also owning slaves while opposing their trade (to which Jefferson claims he has arranged for his existing slaves' manumission) and the northern colonies profit off it via the Triangle Trade ("Molasses to Rum"). Rutledge leads a walk-out with the delegates from both Carolinas and Georgia, and the rest of the Congress follows. Adams, who insists on including the slavery clause on principle that excluding it would make the Congress hypocrites, discusses the matter with Franklin, who tells Adams that he must accept some degree of compromise if he wants the independence resolution to pass. Adams calls on Abigail in his mind to help him, and she reminds him of his commitment to the cause ("Compliments"). Bolstered by her (and the arrival of a delivery of kegs of saltpeter he had previously requested from her), Adams recovers his energy and sends Franklin to try and win the support of Pennsylvania's James Wilson and Jefferson to talk to Rutledge. Re-reading a dispatch from Washington, Adams, now alone, wonders "Is Anybody There?" Hall returns; after considering the words of Edmund Burke, he decides to buck his constituency's loyalist preference and use his own judgment to vote Yea for independence on Georgia's behalf.