About the work
1776 is a musical by Sherman Edwards (music and lyrics) with a book by Peter Stone, premiered on Broadway in 1969. The unusual historical work dramatises the weeks before the signing of the American Declaration of Independence and won the Tony Award for Best Musical.
Plot
In the hot summer of 1776, the delegates of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia wrestle with the question of independence from Great Britain. John Adams, supported by Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, pushes the hesitant colleagues forward. Personal vanities, regional interests, and above all the bitter dispute over slavery threaten to wreck the undertaking. The musical shows the arduous, compromise-laden path to the historic signature.
Cultural significance
1776 is unique in daring long dialogue-heavy passages without music and in showing historical figures as contradictory human beings. It anticipates the kind of historical storytelling in the musical that Hamilton would later perfect. The work is especially performed around Independence Day in the United States and was revived in 2022 in a diverse recasting that underlined its topicality.