Happy July 4th! This year brings with it renewed attention and consideration of what America stands for as we look towards making diversity, inclusion and equity important measures of our efforts towards realizing the best of those ideals. Theater as well must during our reopening look to tangible ways to bring diversity, inclusion and equity to our community and work, moving from ideal to realization.
1776, with a book by Peter Stone, music & lyrics by Sherman Edwards and directed by Peter Hunt, opened on March 16, 1969 at the 46th Street Theatre, now known as the Richard Rodgers Theatre, (which in a wonderful moment of theatrical symmetry, is the current home of Hamilton.) Both are examples of theater, both entertaining and thought-provoking and are rather timely reminders to us that America has a history of ideals that emerged from open debate and the exchange of ideas essential to its core existence.
The Egg performed by Ken Howard (Thomas Jefferson), Howard Da Silva (Benjamin Franklin), and William Daniels (John Adams) reprising their Broadway roles in the film version of 1776.
Even though 1776 opened a mere 15 hours before the close of eligibility for the 1969 Tony Awards®, it won for Best Musical and Best Direction of a Musical that year. 1776 played 1,217 performances before closing Feb. 13, 1972 at the Majestic Theatre. During the Broadway run of the original production, it moved theaters twice, once from the 46th Street Theatre to the St. James Theatre, without missing a single performance and then to the Majestic Theatre, dark only two days for that move. It was revived on Broadway in 1997 by the Roundabout Theatre Company. In 1972, a screen adaptation was released with many of the original Broadway cast reprising their roles and again directed by Peter Hunt. In the 49 years since it ended its original Broadway run 1776 has had numerous productions regionally, internationally, and academically.
