Music and Lyrics by Sherman Edwards Book by Peter Stone Based on a Concept by Sherman Edwards
Originally produced in 1969 on the Broadway Stage by Stuart Ostrow
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Dress Rehearsal One Photos Dress Rehearsal Two Photos Staged 2002
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Message from Author Peter Stone upon revival of this musical in 1997.
When "1776" opened on Broadway in March, 1969, it was a different America. Richard Nixon was President, the Vietnam War was escalating, the civil rights struggle was continuing, the Berlin Wall was standing and college campuses were in turmoil.
Americans found themselves separated by generation, race and political philosophy. The simple word "patriotism" had its meaning split in two. Those in rebellion used it disparagingly.
Then along came a theatre piece that dealt with the birth of our nation in story and song. It presented our founders as real men, not cardboard caricatures, and our attempt to separate from Great Britain as a parliamentary argument waged with all the passion, humor and articulation real men can muster.
"1776" became a popular hit; it won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical (beating out that other revolutionary musical, "Hair"), and the prestigious N.Y. Theatre Critics Circle Award. It ran for three years on Broadway, and spawned two national touring companies, an award-winning London production and, finally, a Hollywood motion picture.
That a musical celebrating the birth of our nation should have succeeded during those tumultuous times was suprising to some; what could be more "patriotic" than the telling of our national legend? The simple answer is that, so long as the authors refrained from jingoistic flag-waving and nationalistic cant, the story and its characters could succeed in reinforcing everyone’s feelings that, no matter what they felt might be right or wrong with the country at the moment, the reaffirmation of our heritage was indeed inspirational, something to return to in order to regain one’s bearings.
And now, twenty-eight years later, after six Presidents (including one who resigned and three who failed to win reelection), the end of the war, the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the dissolution of the Soviet Empire and the end of the Cold War, Watergate, Iran "gate", Whitewater, apolitical college campuses, a change of the congressional majority and the beginning of a period of unprecedented economic prosperity, all of which has produced a population mostly grown self-satisfies, self-centered and politically cynical "1776" returns to Broadway and meets with the same critical and popular approval it received nearly three decades before. At first glance, this would seem even more surprising than its original success.
But on closer examination, the reason seems as simple now as it was before: to this comfortable, complacent, market-driven, media-distracted nation, that same reminder of our national origin and the courage, commitment and the determination of that remarkable group of men who created a new, democratic nation, free of subordination and even obligation to any foreign power, a feat never before accomplished in all of the previous history of the world, a pattern and hope for every other, less-liberated country to envy and emulate in that this reminder can rekindle feelings that have been sublimated beneath meaner, less meaningful attention, only proves that the feelings are still there. Again, reaffirmation.
In other words, a declaration that "We hold theses truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable right; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
-- Peter Stone
