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1776
1776 is an inspiring and imaginative re-creation of the events from May 8 to July 4 in Philadelphia, when the second Continental Congress argued about, voted on, and signed the Declaration of Independence. From John Adams's opening diatribe to the signing of the document, 1776 is a classic musical play of mounting tension and triumph. Stone and Edwards have dramatically brought to life the legendary delegates: the ever-urbane Benjamin Franklin, the hot-blooded newlywed Thomas Jefferson, and the fiery Adams in conflict with the conservative John Dickinson. With stirring dialogue and colorful, evocative lyrics, 1776 lends an emotion and human dimension to the story that is unattainable in a history book alone.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1970
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629 people want to read
About the author
Peter Stone
11 books5 followersAmerican writer for theater, television and movies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Stone
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Stone
Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
August 9, 2025
1776, the Peter Stone/Sherman Edwards musical from 1969, is quite different when one reads it rather than viewing it. Watching the play on stage – as, for example, when it was staged at historic Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., in 2012 – or seeing the Peter Hunt film from 1972 means that one gets to enjoy Edwards’s evocative music. Reading the play, one must “re-play” the music in one’s own mind. But Stone's dialogue is just as trenchant when one is reading the book for the musical; the authors effectively dramatize the Second Continental Congress's 1776 deliberations upon the subject of an American Declaration of Independence from Great Britain.
Stone and Edwards create a colonial Philadelphia populated with characters who are quarrelsome, bawdy, and fun-loving -- in short, they are about as far as one can get from the dignified monumental statuary that one sees throughout the area around the Independence National Historical Park in contemporary Philadelphia. I showed the film version of 1776 in a couple of U.S. Studies classes at Penn State University back in the day, and I found that some of my students were quite put off, even offended, to see future signers of the Declaration of Independence talking so frankly about sex, drunkenness, and bathroom functions; but anyone who has read 18th-century American writers such as Benjamin Franklin knows that Stone and Edwards are being true to the often earthy realities of American life in that time.
Whenever I read 1776, my sense that it is truly John Adams's story is reinforced; while Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson share a great deal of time on stage with Adams, John Adams and his wife Abigail are among the few characters who are referred to in the play's stage directions by their first names. It is always "John," and "Abigail," in contrast with "Franklin" and "Jefferson."
And John Adams – brought to life so memorably by actor William Daniels in both the original Broadway play and the Peter Hunt film – gets some of the best lines in the play. Adams combines a core of moral rectitude and integrity with a famously prickly personality; he refers to himself, and is referred to by almost every other character in the play, as "obnoxious and disliked." A highlight, for me, comes early in the play, when the pro-independence Adams apostrophizes the Almighty, expressing his fear that the Congress will prove itself incapable of action on the issue of independence:
“I do believe You’ve laid a curse on
North America!
A curse that we here now rehearse in
Philadelphia!
A second Flood, a simple famine,
Plagues of locusts everywhere,
Or a cataclysmic earthquake,
I’d accept with some despair.
But, no, You’ve sent us Congress —
Good God, Sir, was that fair?” (p. 4)
Another particular strength of 1776 is the way it dramatizes the relationship between John and Abigail Adams – truly one of the great love stories from American history. Abigail Adams famously cautioned her husband not to acquiesce in men’s oppression of women while battling the oppression of American colonists by the British, admonishing her husband to “Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all men would be Tyrants if they could.”
In just that spirit of loving challenge, Abigail Adams, singing the same melody that her husband John sang moments before, responds to his demand that the women of Massachusetts make saltpeter for the Continental Army by reminding him of the problems that Revolutionary women are facing:
”There’s one thing every woman’s missed in
Massachusetts Bay –
Don’t smirk at me, you egotist, pay
Heed to what I say!
We’ve gone from Framingham to Boston
And cannot find a pin.
“Don’t you know there is a war on?”
Says each tradesman with a grin.
Well!
We will not make saltpetre
Until you send us pins!” (p. 8)
The Adamses quarrel energetically, but they love each other deeply, closing their correspondence by singing together, “Till then,/I am, as I ever was, and ever shall be,/Yours – yours – yours…” (p. 9). It is an exceptionally moving love story – of two brilliant, ethical people who loved each other enough to disagree openly and honestly, without ever letting their disagreements get in the way of their love for each other.
The Benjamin Franklin of 1776 is avuncular and humorous, always ready with a pithy witticism. Early in the play, he responds to Adams’s complaint that “Dammit, Franklin, you make us sound treasonous!” by inventing, on the spot, a new Poor Richard’s Almanack-style aphorism: “‘Treason is a charge invented by the winners as an excuse for hanging the losers’” (p. 11). Acutely conscious of his own celebrity, Franklin will introduce himself to someone who doesn't recognize him as "inventor of the stove"; but he plays a most serious role in the play, providing a practical, politically savvy counterpoint to John Adams’s damn-the-consequences idealism.
And Jefferson is self-effacing, modest to a fault – at first, the delegates don’t look to him for much but the weather report on Philadelphia's consistently hot and humid summer climate – but he is possessed of talents and convictions that will make it self-evident to all that the quiet, young, 33-year-old Virginian is the ideal person to write the Declaration of Independence. A characteristic moment in that regard comes when members of the Second Continental Congress are asking, rhetorically, why a declaration of independence is even necessary; Jefferson suddenly rises, winks at Adams, and quite deliberately states that the reason for such a declaration is "To place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent" (p. 55). Whoa! It is a mike-drop moment that, for a time, quiets even a room full of Congressmen.
The sources of drama in 1776 are twofold. First, there is disagreement within the Congress over whether independence from Britain is achievable or even desirable; it is striking to hear John Dickinson, an anti-independence Pennsylvanian, verbalize a loyalist perspective that was actually held by quite a few Americans in those days. Calling England “the noblest, most civilized nation on the face of this planet”, Dickinson asks Adams, “Would you have us forsake Hastings and Magna Carta, Strongbow and Lionhearted, Drake and Marlborough, Tudors, Stuarts, and Plantagenets? For what, sir? Tell me, for what? For you?” (p. 39).
I respect the way in which Stone and Edwards do not make an anti-independence Congressman into a cardboard character, a straw man spewing easily refuted pro-British propaganda. Rather, they respect their audience enough to let the viewers of the play listen to serious arguments from sincere people, and then make up their own minds.
The second source of drama in 1776 is even more consequential. Once the Declaration of Independence has been drafted, and Congressional consideration of the Declaration has actually begun, the issue of slavery threatens to tear the United Colonies apart before they can even dream of becoming United States. Deep South delegates led by Edward Rutledge object to an anti-slavery paragraph penned by Jefferson and championed by Adams, and the argument over this passage makes for some of the most dramatic moments in the play.
Jefferson passionately insists that African Americans held in slavery are “people who are being treated as property! I tell you, the rights of human nature are deeply wounded by this infamous practice!” An unmoved Rutledge shouts in response, “Then see to your own wounds, Mr. Jefferson, for you are a – practitioner, are you not?” The stage directions indicate that there is "A pause. Rutledge has found the mark"; and Jefferson’s subdued statement, in reply, that “I have already resolved to release my slaves” (p. 118) holds no real force. One senses, in that moment, how American irresolution over slavery will persist for the next four score and seven years – right up through a hideous civil war that will pit North and South against one another over the issue of slavery.
The Deep South delegates walk out of the Congress, and Adams for a time wants to hold out for keeping the anti-slavery clause in the Declaration. Franklin, who at one point reminds Adams that “I founded the first anti-slavery society on this continent” (p. 124), has the unenviable task of persuading Adams to acquiesce in the removal of the anti-slavery passage. When Adams insists that “if we give in on this issue, posterity will never forgive us”, Franklin replies that “We’re men – no more, no less – trying to get a nation started against greater odds than a more generous God would have allowed” – and reminds Adams that an America that does not free itself from Great Britain will not have even a chance of moving independently against slavery, or indeed of ever doing anything else on its own: “John, first things first! Independence! America! For if we don’t secure that, what difference will the rest make?” (p. 136)
And it is against that background that the Second Continental Congress moves toward completing its final vote on adopting the Declaration of Independence. We all know how the story will end, but Stone and Edwards make it a compelling and suspenseful story nonetheless.
The play premiered in 1969, and the film adaptation was released in 1972. At that time, the nation felt the pride of an impending Bicentennial, and yet the turmoil of the Vietnam War and the tensions of the Civil Rights Era were awakening feelings of doubt and anxiety among many Americans. Accordingly, there is nothing easy or facile about America's beginnings as dramatized in 1776. As Franklin says at a crucial moment in the independence debate, "Revolutions come into this world like bastard children...half improvised and half compromised."
This edition of 1776 further benefits from the inclusion of Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration of Independence, annotated with the changes made by the Congress – including the removed anti-slavery passage that the Deep South delegates found so objectionable – and from a "Historical Note by the Authors" that documents the extensive historical research that Stone and Edwards conducted in crafting the play. (It comforted me, for example, to know that the authors knew that Martha Jefferson didn't really come to Philadelphia in the summer of 1776 to comfort her lovesick husband.) Stone and Edwards’s 1776 brings to life the story of America's beginnings in an original and powerful way.
Stone and Edwards create a colonial Philadelphia populated with characters who are quarrelsome, bawdy, and fun-loving -- in short, they are about as far as one can get from the dignified monumental statuary that one sees throughout the area around the Independence National Historical Park in contemporary Philadelphia. I showed the film version of 1776 in a couple of U.S. Studies classes at Penn State University back in the day, and I found that some of my students were quite put off, even offended, to see future signers of the Declaration of Independence talking so frankly about sex, drunkenness, and bathroom functions; but anyone who has read 18th-century American writers such as Benjamin Franklin knows that Stone and Edwards are being true to the often earthy realities of American life in that time.
Whenever I read 1776, my sense that it is truly John Adams's story is reinforced; while Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson share a great deal of time on stage with Adams, John Adams and his wife Abigail are among the few characters who are referred to in the play's stage directions by their first names. It is always "John," and "Abigail," in contrast with "Franklin" and "Jefferson."
And John Adams – brought to life so memorably by actor William Daniels in both the original Broadway play and the Peter Hunt film – gets some of the best lines in the play. Adams combines a core of moral rectitude and integrity with a famously prickly personality; he refers to himself, and is referred to by almost every other character in the play, as "obnoxious and disliked." A highlight, for me, comes early in the play, when the pro-independence Adams apostrophizes the Almighty, expressing his fear that the Congress will prove itself incapable of action on the issue of independence:
“I do believe You’ve laid a curse on
North America!
A curse that we here now rehearse in
Philadelphia!
A second Flood, a simple famine,
Plagues of locusts everywhere,
Or a cataclysmic earthquake,
I’d accept with some despair.
But, no, You’ve sent us Congress —
Good God, Sir, was that fair?” (p. 4)
Another particular strength of 1776 is the way it dramatizes the relationship between John and Abigail Adams – truly one of the great love stories from American history. Abigail Adams famously cautioned her husband not to acquiesce in men’s oppression of women while battling the oppression of American colonists by the British, admonishing her husband to “Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all men would be Tyrants if they could.”
In just that spirit of loving challenge, Abigail Adams, singing the same melody that her husband John sang moments before, responds to his demand that the women of Massachusetts make saltpeter for the Continental Army by reminding him of the problems that Revolutionary women are facing:
”There’s one thing every woman’s missed in
Massachusetts Bay –
Don’t smirk at me, you egotist, pay
Heed to what I say!
We’ve gone from Framingham to Boston
And cannot find a pin.
“Don’t you know there is a war on?”
Says each tradesman with a grin.
Well!
We will not make saltpetre
Until you send us pins!” (p. 8)
The Adamses quarrel energetically, but they love each other deeply, closing their correspondence by singing together, “Till then,/I am, as I ever was, and ever shall be,/Yours – yours – yours…” (p. 9). It is an exceptionally moving love story – of two brilliant, ethical people who loved each other enough to disagree openly and honestly, without ever letting their disagreements get in the way of their love for each other.
The Benjamin Franklin of 1776 is avuncular and humorous, always ready with a pithy witticism. Early in the play, he responds to Adams’s complaint that “Dammit, Franklin, you make us sound treasonous!” by inventing, on the spot, a new Poor Richard’s Almanack-style aphorism: “‘Treason is a charge invented by the winners as an excuse for hanging the losers’” (p. 11). Acutely conscious of his own celebrity, Franklin will introduce himself to someone who doesn't recognize him as "inventor of the stove"; but he plays a most serious role in the play, providing a practical, politically savvy counterpoint to John Adams’s damn-the-consequences idealism.
And Jefferson is self-effacing, modest to a fault – at first, the delegates don’t look to him for much but the weather report on Philadelphia's consistently hot and humid summer climate – but he is possessed of talents and convictions that will make it self-evident to all that the quiet, young, 33-year-old Virginian is the ideal person to write the Declaration of Independence. A characteristic moment in that regard comes when members of the Second Continental Congress are asking, rhetorically, why a declaration of independence is even necessary; Jefferson suddenly rises, winks at Adams, and quite deliberately states that the reason for such a declaration is "To place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent" (p. 55). Whoa! It is a mike-drop moment that, for a time, quiets even a room full of Congressmen.
The sources of drama in 1776 are twofold. First, there is disagreement within the Congress over whether independence from Britain is achievable or even desirable; it is striking to hear John Dickinson, an anti-independence Pennsylvanian, verbalize a loyalist perspective that was actually held by quite a few Americans in those days. Calling England “the noblest, most civilized nation on the face of this planet”, Dickinson asks Adams, “Would you have us forsake Hastings and Magna Carta, Strongbow and Lionhearted, Drake and Marlborough, Tudors, Stuarts, and Plantagenets? For what, sir? Tell me, for what? For you?” (p. 39).
I respect the way in which Stone and Edwards do not make an anti-independence Congressman into a cardboard character, a straw man spewing easily refuted pro-British propaganda. Rather, they respect their audience enough to let the viewers of the play listen to serious arguments from sincere people, and then make up their own minds.
The second source of drama in 1776 is even more consequential. Once the Declaration of Independence has been drafted, and Congressional consideration of the Declaration has actually begun, the issue of slavery threatens to tear the United Colonies apart before they can even dream of becoming United States. Deep South delegates led by Edward Rutledge object to an anti-slavery paragraph penned by Jefferson and championed by Adams, and the argument over this passage makes for some of the most dramatic moments in the play.
Jefferson passionately insists that African Americans held in slavery are “people who are being treated as property! I tell you, the rights of human nature are deeply wounded by this infamous practice!” An unmoved Rutledge shouts in response, “Then see to your own wounds, Mr. Jefferson, for you are a – practitioner, are you not?” The stage directions indicate that there is "A pause. Rutledge has found the mark"; and Jefferson’s subdued statement, in reply, that “I have already resolved to release my slaves” (p. 118) holds no real force. One senses, in that moment, how American irresolution over slavery will persist for the next four score and seven years – right up through a hideous civil war that will pit North and South against one another over the issue of slavery.
The Deep South delegates walk out of the Congress, and Adams for a time wants to hold out for keeping the anti-slavery clause in the Declaration. Franklin, who at one point reminds Adams that “I founded the first anti-slavery society on this continent” (p. 124), has the unenviable task of persuading Adams to acquiesce in the removal of the anti-slavery passage. When Adams insists that “if we give in on this issue, posterity will never forgive us”, Franklin replies that “We’re men – no more, no less – trying to get a nation started against greater odds than a more generous God would have allowed” – and reminds Adams that an America that does not free itself from Great Britain will not have even a chance of moving independently against slavery, or indeed of ever doing anything else on its own: “John, first things first! Independence! America! For if we don’t secure that, what difference will the rest make?” (p. 136)
And it is against that background that the Second Continental Congress moves toward completing its final vote on adopting the Declaration of Independence. We all know how the story will end, but Stone and Edwards make it a compelling and suspenseful story nonetheless.
The play premiered in 1969, and the film adaptation was released in 1972. At that time, the nation felt the pride of an impending Bicentennial, and yet the turmoil of the Vietnam War and the tensions of the Civil Rights Era were awakening feelings of doubt and anxiety among many Americans. Accordingly, there is nothing easy or facile about America's beginnings as dramatized in 1776. As Franklin says at a crucial moment in the independence debate, "Revolutions come into this world like bastard children...half improvised and half compromised."
This edition of 1776 further benefits from the inclusion of Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration of Independence, annotated with the changes made by the Congress – including the removed anti-slavery passage that the Deep South delegates found so objectionable – and from a "Historical Note by the Authors" that documents the extensive historical research that Stone and Edwards conducted in crafting the play. (It comforted me, for example, to know that the authors knew that Martha Jefferson didn't really come to Philadelphia in the summer of 1776 to comfort her lovesick husband.) Stone and Edwards’s 1776 brings to life the story of America's beginnings in an original and powerful way.
October 13, 2024
The historical note that attempts to set straight what in the musical is accurate and what made up also needs a historical note, particularly with respect to Judge Wilson. The real vote for independence differed from the musical. On July 1, Pennsylvania voted against it. Among the delegates, Franklin, Wilson and Morton were in favor, but Dickinson, Morris, Willing and Humphreys were opposed. The next day, in the face of every other colony voting in favor, Dickinson and Morris absented themselves and so the vote carried.
May 5, 2023
I 💙💙💙 1776
April 10, 2017
I read the occasional play/script from time to time. I love 1776 (way before Hamilton was an interest) and have always wanted to see it on-stage. I was fortunate to come across a copy of the script-book and I was curious to see how faithful the script for the film was to the stage production.
To my surprise, it was VERY faithful. It was interesting seeing the action cues next to each speaker, it gave it a lot more depth and grimace towards some of the not great scenes.
There was a verse here or there that wasn't in the movie and there were a couple lines that felt a tad more expanded on in here. Nevertheless, it's an amazing musical.
To my surprise, it was VERY faithful. It was interesting seeing the action cues next to each speaker, it gave it a lot more depth and grimace towards some of the not great scenes.
There was a verse here or there that wasn't in the movie and there were a couple lines that felt a tad more expanded on in here. Nevertheless, it's an amazing musical.
May 31, 2022
A friend gave this to me as a surprise birthday gift when we went to see the new production of 1776 by American Repertory Theater in Boston. I was eager to read it, since it's been a favorite of mine since middle school.
Having the libretto is useful for double-checking lyrics, getting to see the stage directions, and the occasional bit of text or lyric that survived out of town tryouts but was eventually cut from the production. However, the most interesting part of this publication is that it includes the full original text of the Declaration of Independence, with changes, deletions, and additions marked and an extensive historical note from the authors.
The thing about any historical writing is that the documented facts are filtered through the interpretation of the writer, and so it's always important to consider the writer's perspective and biases. Stone and Edwards were deeply interested in history, did a ton of research (the book also includes an impressive bibliography), and had noble intentions; but 50 years after the original production, their biases and blind spots are increasingly apparent. It's a testament to the thoughtfulness and strength of the original writing that new productions are being produced that primarily endeavor to build on the original more than critique it.
The current ART production, for example, is performed entirely by women, trans, and nonbinary actors and a deliberately multiracial cast. The only change to the text was adding Abigail Adams's plea to "Remember the Ladies" (with permission of the Stone and Edwards estates), but changing who is saying the lines (along with some really clever choreography) does a lot to point out who the historical figures meant by "us", who Sherman & Edwards meant, and who members of the audience mean. The original play was being written in the late 1960s, and so the Civil Rights Movement was very much on their minds, while the Women's Rights Movement was likely not as pressing. Still, they made a point of including Abigail Adams and Martha Jefferson while not explicitly discussing women's rights; then spend the entire second half of the play arguing about slavery while not including any people of color in the cast. (The current ART production includes a portrayal of Robert Hemings, the enslaved 14-year-old brother of Sally Hemings, Thomas Jefferson's eventual mistress, and half-brother of his wife, Martha Jefferson, whom Jefferson brought with him to Philadelphia.)
This review is getting long and more involved in different productions than the text, so to sum up, I'll say this -- the 1972 film is pretty much the definitive version of the original production and well worth seeing, but less for itself (though I am very fond of it) than for stimulating further thought and conversation. It is clear from the authors' notes that they meant the play to be a starting point rather than an end point, and for me, at least, it has succeeded wildly in that goal.
Edited to add:
One of my favorite moments is a very small one -- the song "Compliments" includes both secular and religious groups, Christian and Jewish, and Protestant and Catholic. Knowing and acknowledging that this diversity existed is something rarely done and worth noting.
Having the libretto is useful for double-checking lyrics, getting to see the stage directions, and the occasional bit of text or lyric that survived out of town tryouts but was eventually cut from the production. However, the most interesting part of this publication is that it includes the full original text of the Declaration of Independence, with changes, deletions, and additions marked and an extensive historical note from the authors.
The thing about any historical writing is that the documented facts are filtered through the interpretation of the writer, and so it's always important to consider the writer's perspective and biases. Stone and Edwards were deeply interested in history, did a ton of research (the book also includes an impressive bibliography), and had noble intentions; but 50 years after the original production, their biases and blind spots are increasingly apparent. It's a testament to the thoughtfulness and strength of the original writing that new productions are being produced that primarily endeavor to build on the original more than critique it.
The current ART production, for example, is performed entirely by women, trans, and nonbinary actors and a deliberately multiracial cast. The only change to the text was adding Abigail Adams's plea to "Remember the Ladies" (with permission of the Stone and Edwards estates), but changing who is saying the lines (along with some really clever choreography) does a lot to point out who the historical figures meant by "us", who Sherman & Edwards meant, and who members of the audience mean. The original play was being written in the late 1960s, and so the Civil Rights Movement was very much on their minds, while the Women's Rights Movement was likely not as pressing. Still, they made a point of including Abigail Adams and Martha Jefferson while not explicitly discussing women's rights; then spend the entire second half of the play arguing about slavery while not including any people of color in the cast. (The current ART production includes a portrayal of Robert Hemings, the enslaved 14-year-old brother of Sally Hemings, Thomas Jefferson's eventual mistress, and half-brother of his wife, Martha Jefferson, whom Jefferson brought with him to Philadelphia.)
This review is getting long and more involved in different productions than the text, so to sum up, I'll say this -- the 1972 film is pretty much the definitive version of the original production and well worth seeing, but less for itself (though I am very fond of it) than for stimulating further thought and conversation. It is clear from the authors' notes that they meant the play to be a starting point rather than an end point, and for me, at least, it has succeeded wildly in that goal.
Edited to add:
One of my favorite moments is a very small one -- the song "Compliments" includes both secular and religious groups, Christian and Jewish, and Protestant and Catholic. Knowing and acknowledging that this diversity existed is something rarely done and worth noting.
June 29, 2015
Seeing this play (or the film that was made from it) is our family July 4th tradition. I have been in two separate productions of the play playing Franklin and Hopkins respectively. It has been a part of my life for a very long time. The nice thing about reading it is the authors have provided an afterward explaining what is real, what is adapted, and why they did the things they did. Highly recommended.
January 11, 2020
Played Abigail Adams in 2000 at Playhouse 22 in East Brunswick.
February 27, 2025
Like with most of the other musicals I've listened to this year, I got the script then read and listened along with the soundtrack. For me, the standout in this one is the dialogue! It takes on such a small topic — those last months in Congress before the Declaration is signed — but takes on every little moment in it, creating such an atmosphere of weariness, anxiety and occasionally ridiculousness (as opposed to solemnity). It goes beyond the traditional paintings, but there is at the end, the moment when the figures who'd previously fought tooth and nail suddenly become those figures, creating history.
It points out the hypocrisy within the document as well, but not only that, points out the hypocrisy with all the Founding Fathers — mostly Northerners who relied on the Southerner economy and, of course, Jefferson, who owned slaves. The exploration of class in this is also interesting, through "Mama, Look Sharp" sung by the only enlisted men, notably, none of the Congress members.
I liked the tension between the knowledge for these men that this is a historic moment, the weight of the world upon them, but the absolute ridiculousness of it all — the final decision sparked by a man who doesn't want to be in the history books. All of the characters were fascinating portrayals of these real and oftentimes confusing men, Dickinson with the refusal to sign but joining the army nonetheless, Franklin the abolitionist making concessions to the South, Adams with everything he had going on.
I had a great time reading this! The songs weren't especially catchy, but I'd give them another listen. What a neat musical!
It points out the hypocrisy within the document as well, but not only that, points out the hypocrisy with all the Founding Fathers — mostly Northerners who relied on the Southerner economy and, of course, Jefferson, who owned slaves. The exploration of class in this is also interesting, through "Mama, Look Sharp" sung by the only enlisted men, notably, none of the Congress members.
I liked the tension between the knowledge for these men that this is a historic moment, the weight of the world upon them, but the absolute ridiculousness of it all — the final decision sparked by a man who doesn't want to be in the history books. All of the characters were fascinating portrayals of these real and oftentimes confusing men, Dickinson with the refusal to sign but joining the army nonetheless, Franklin the abolitionist making concessions to the South, Adams with everything he had going on.
I had a great time reading this! The songs weren't especially catchy, but I'd give them another listen. What a neat musical!
October 10, 2020
Okay, my rating is completely influenced by having watched this more times than I would have had my husband not loved this (he does not normally watch musicals) and the acting, etc rubbed off on my. Plus I could remember almost all of the melodies just well enough that it helped. His copy was on VHS so it's been some years, plus add to that that it was too long and boring for my kids. BUT I have weak spot for "He played the violin" that doesn't make any sense whatsoever given my normal music tastes.
Yes, this is rather soppy and sentimental and so very late 1960s American (bear in mind that I wasn't a naturalized citizen the first few times I saw this) that the first time I watched it I wasn't impressed. However, despite all of that, what I appreciated is the strong writing and that they didn't hide all of the negative aspects, such as the long fight between Jefferson et al keeping in the rights for ALL men (yes, men--these were not so liberally minded a to include women even if they included minorities in the first draft) and the south who insisted they take that out. Perhaps the most compelling song on this that showed the darkness of the entire economy and how even some abolitionist minded states were involved in the slave trade economy via a triangular trade (the song "Molasses to Rum", which shows the molasses to rum to slaves trade.
Yes, this is rather soppy and sentimental and so very late 1960s American (bear in mind that I wasn't a naturalized citizen the first few times I saw this) that the first time I watched it I wasn't impressed. However, despite all of that, what I appreciated is the strong writing and that they didn't hide all of the negative aspects, such as the long fight between Jefferson et al keeping in the rights for ALL men (yes, men--these were not so liberally minded a to include women even if they included minorities in the first draft) and the south who insisted they take that out. Perhaps the most compelling song on this that showed the darkness of the entire economy and how even some abolitionist minded states were involved in the slave trade economy via a triangular trade (the song "Molasses to Rum", which shows the molasses to rum to slaves trade.
June 6, 2024
1776 was not a great musical, but it was the very first play I saw on Broadway, when I was 13 years old. I recently listened to the original cast album, and have to admit that it doesn’t stand up to any of the classics of American musical theatre. But that is true of most musicals.
I was fascinated by the Founders and by the 18th century. When the daughter of a family friend came to stay with our family for a few weeks, I persuaded my mother that this was the musical to take us to see.
I was utterly smitten. It was funny and serious, and it made the contingency of American independence very real. The authors have a great afterword, in which they explain how accurately the play depicts events and individuals. A few years later, I remember reading a volume of John Adams’s correspondence with his wife Abigail, and seeing some of the same phrases used in the play’s dialogue.
The stars are for my deep affection for the play.
I was fascinated by the Founders and by the 18th century. When the daughter of a family friend came to stay with our family for a few weeks, I persuaded my mother that this was the musical to take us to see.
I was utterly smitten. It was funny and serious, and it made the contingency of American independence very real. The authors have a great afterword, in which they explain how accurately the play depicts events and individuals. A few years later, I remember reading a volume of John Adams’s correspondence with his wife Abigail, and seeing some of the same phrases used in the play’s dialogue.
The stars are for my deep affection for the play.
March 21, 2022
I'm not a fan of musicals but if I saw one 1776 would be the kind I would go to. John Adams takes the center stage while Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson are the main supporting roles. I'm not sure if there is less singing in this than there are in most musicals, but almost every line of dialogue clearly advanced the plot which is my main complaint with musicals in general (was this song really necessary? did this song add anything to show?). The story is crisp and features many of the lesser known signers of the Declaration of Independence and does a great job poking fun of John Adams while also showing how important he was to the cause of American independence.
April 24, 2020
5 stars!!! Still one of my favorite reads, and musicals of all time. I have read this book too many times that I have memorized the script, and the delveriance in each passage. And the ending still gets me after all these years. I feel that Mr. John Adams and I are alike in many many ways!!!
December 18, 2022
😘😘😘 when I see John adams
😘😘😘 when I see Abigail Adams
😏😏😏 when I hear a violin
🥵🥵🥵 when I go to Philadelphia
🥺🥺🥺 when we are free
😳😳😳 when Rutledge calls out the north for being complicit in the slave trade
😘😘😘 when I see Abigail Adams
😏😏😏 when I hear a violin
🥵🥵🥵 when I go to Philadelphia
🥺🥺🥺 when we are free
😳😳😳 when Rutledge calls out the north for being complicit in the slave trade
December 19, 2022
It’s a re-read, but still very affecting. Just accurate enough to please history fans and just emotional enough to please patriots. The music is a B- but not bad really, and it makes up for it by including some real intellect and moments of heroism.
March 7, 2024
real masterpiece!!! I've read this script while watching the movie 1776 on YouTube and am fully touched. The characters are so vivid!!! Can't imagine how exciting, frightening and perplexing the moment when all the representatives signed the declaration is...
April 16, 2022
Probably would have enjoyed it less if I’d seen it live.
May 18, 2025
A musical version of the signing of the declaration of independence is a great musical and should be done more often
March 31, 2012
Seeing Peter Stone and Sherman Edwards's play 1776 on a stage, or on the movie screen, is in a way easier; reading the play as a play is more complex. One loses Sherman Edwards's music when all one has is printed words on a page. But Peter Stone's dialogue is just as trenchant; the diligent research that Stone and Edwards did pays off, as the authors effectively dramatize the Second Continental Congress's 1776 deliberations upon the subject of an American Declaration of Independence from Great Britain.
Stone and Edwards create a colonial Philadelphia populated with characters who are quarrelsome, bawdy, fun-loving -- as far as one can get from the marble monuments in Statuary Hall. Whenever I read 1776, my sense that it is truly John Adams's story is reinforced; while Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson share a great deal of time on stage with Adams, John Adams and his wife Abigail are the only characters who are referred to in the play's stage directions by their first names. It is always "John," and "Abigail," in contrast with "Franklin" and "Jefferson."
Adams, Franklin, and Jefferson all come to vivid life in this play. Adams combines a core of moral rectitude and integrity with a famously prickly personality; he refers to himself, and is referred to by almost every other character in the play, as "obnoxious and disliked." Franklin is avuncular, humorous, acutely conscious of his own celebrity -- if someone doesn't recognize him, he'll introduce himself as "inventor of the stove" -- but he can turn deadly serious when occasion warrants. And Jefferson is self-effacing, modest to a fault, but possessed of talents and convictions that will make themselves apparent in due time.
The sources of drama in 1776 are twofold. First, there is disagreement within the Congress over whether independence from Britain is achievable or even desirable; it is striking to hear John Dickinson, an anti-independence Pennsylvanian, appeal to Magna Carta as a shared inheritance of all English-speaking people. Second, once the consideration of Jefferson's Declaration of Independence has actually begun, Deep South delegates led by Edward Rutledge stand ready to walk out if an anti-slavery paragraph penned by Jefferson and championed by Adams is allowed to remain in the Declaration.
The play premiered in 1969, and the film adaptation was released in 1972. At that time, the nation felt the pride of an impending Bicentennial, and yet the turmoil of the Vietnam War and the tensions of the Civil Rights Era were awakening feelings of doubt and anxiety among many Americans. Accordingly, there is nothing easy or facile about America's beginnings as dramatized in 1776. As Franklin says at a crucial moment in the independence debate, "Revolutions come into this world like bastard children...half improvised and half compromised."
This edition of 1776 further benefits from the inclusion of Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration of Independence, annotated with the changes made by the Congress, and from a "Historical Note by the Authors" that shows the extensive historical research that Stone and Edwards did in developing the play. (It comforted me, for example, to know that the authors knew that Martha Jefferson didn't really come to Philadelphia in the summer of 1776 to comfort her lovesick husband.) 1776 brings to life the story of America's beginnings in a powerful way.
Stone and Edwards create a colonial Philadelphia populated with characters who are quarrelsome, bawdy, fun-loving -- as far as one can get from the marble monuments in Statuary Hall. Whenever I read 1776, my sense that it is truly John Adams's story is reinforced; while Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson share a great deal of time on stage with Adams, John Adams and his wife Abigail are the only characters who are referred to in the play's stage directions by their first names. It is always "John," and "Abigail," in contrast with "Franklin" and "Jefferson."
Adams, Franklin, and Jefferson all come to vivid life in this play. Adams combines a core of moral rectitude and integrity with a famously prickly personality; he refers to himself, and is referred to by almost every other character in the play, as "obnoxious and disliked." Franklin is avuncular, humorous, acutely conscious of his own celebrity -- if someone doesn't recognize him, he'll introduce himself as "inventor of the stove" -- but he can turn deadly serious when occasion warrants. And Jefferson is self-effacing, modest to a fault, but possessed of talents and convictions that will make themselves apparent in due time.
The sources of drama in 1776 are twofold. First, there is disagreement within the Congress over whether independence from Britain is achievable or even desirable; it is striking to hear John Dickinson, an anti-independence Pennsylvanian, appeal to Magna Carta as a shared inheritance of all English-speaking people. Second, once the consideration of Jefferson's Declaration of Independence has actually begun, Deep South delegates led by Edward Rutledge stand ready to walk out if an anti-slavery paragraph penned by Jefferson and championed by Adams is allowed to remain in the Declaration.
The play premiered in 1969, and the film adaptation was released in 1972. At that time, the nation felt the pride of an impending Bicentennial, and yet the turmoil of the Vietnam War and the tensions of the Civil Rights Era were awakening feelings of doubt and anxiety among many Americans. Accordingly, there is nothing easy or facile about America's beginnings as dramatized in 1776. As Franklin says at a crucial moment in the independence debate, "Revolutions come into this world like bastard children...half improvised and half compromised."
This edition of 1776 further benefits from the inclusion of Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration of Independence, annotated with the changes made by the Congress, and from a "Historical Note by the Authors" that shows the extensive historical research that Stone and Edwards did in developing the play. (It comforted me, for example, to know that the authors knew that Martha Jefferson didn't really come to Philadelphia in the summer of 1776 to comfort her lovesick husband.) 1776 brings to life the story of America's beginnings in a powerful way.
June 4, 2016
Summary from Musical Theatre International:
"The seminal event in American history blazes to vivid life in this most unconventional of Broadway hits. 1776 puts a human face on the pages of history as we see the men behind the national icons: proud, frightened, uncertain, irritable, charming, often petty and ultimately noble figures determined to do the right thing for a fledgling nation.
It's the summer of 1776, and the nation is ready to declare independence...if only our founding fathers can agree to do it! 1776 follows John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, and Richard Henry Lee and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia as they attempt to convince the members of the second Continental Congress to vote for independence from the shackles of the British monarchy by signing the Declaration of Independence.
1776 is a funny, insightful, and compelling drama with a striking score and legendary book. It is an extremely flexible show that can be performed with characters as written or as a concert version."
- See more at: http://www.mtishows.com/1776#sthash.M...
I chose this musical because we are in an election year, and I chose to have a Geopolitical Theater Season for SUNY Sullivan' 2016-2017 season. I am also, as anyone who knows me, a super nerd, and a super nerd for American History. I was in Honors History all through high school and had the opportunity to teach American History at the High School level in 2013-2014.
I saw this play as a film, when I was a child, and I saw it live at Albuquerque Little Theatre in 2012. I have always liked the play, especially, the characters of John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. I (also) loved the HBO mini-series of John Adams, and I want to explore that character, at some point...
It read very well in our reading series, but...it was really long...and...I'm not sure that it matches our community very well... I had thought that I could steal a play from Lin Manuel Miranda and color-blind cast the play, but...that might be too soon...and gimick-y... The cast really doesn't match our community and the voting reflected that...the students and the community voted for the other musical, ASSASSINS...
Maybe, the nerd in me will have to come out, later...
"The seminal event in American history blazes to vivid life in this most unconventional of Broadway hits. 1776 puts a human face on the pages of history as we see the men behind the national icons: proud, frightened, uncertain, irritable, charming, often petty and ultimately noble figures determined to do the right thing for a fledgling nation.
It's the summer of 1776, and the nation is ready to declare independence...if only our founding fathers can agree to do it! 1776 follows John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, and Richard Henry Lee and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia as they attempt to convince the members of the second Continental Congress to vote for independence from the shackles of the British monarchy by signing the Declaration of Independence.
1776 is a funny, insightful, and compelling drama with a striking score and legendary book. It is an extremely flexible show that can be performed with characters as written or as a concert version."
- See more at: http://www.mtishows.com/1776#sthash.M...
I chose this musical because we are in an election year, and I chose to have a Geopolitical Theater Season for SUNY Sullivan' 2016-2017 season. I am also, as anyone who knows me, a super nerd, and a super nerd for American History. I was in Honors History all through high school and had the opportunity to teach American History at the High School level in 2013-2014.
I saw this play as a film, when I was a child, and I saw it live at Albuquerque Little Theatre in 2012. I have always liked the play, especially, the characters of John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. I (also) loved the HBO mini-series of John Adams, and I want to explore that character, at some point...
It read very well in our reading series, but...it was really long...and...I'm not sure that it matches our community very well... I had thought that I could steal a play from Lin Manuel Miranda and color-blind cast the play, but...that might be too soon...and gimick-y... The cast really doesn't match our community and the voting reflected that...the students and the community voted for the other musical, ASSASSINS...
Maybe, the nerd in me will have to come out, later...
July 5, 2015
On the 4th of July, TCM traditionally shows the film version of Sherman Edwards and Stone's 1776. I watch every year. It is my second favorite Broadway musical, the first being GUYS AND DOLLS. Both plays are available in the spiffing new Library of America collection AMERICAN MUSICALS 1950-1969. Yesterday (the 4th)I watched 1776 while following along in the book. It is a shame that most of what I now know about the Second Continental Congress comes from this version of the history. In the excellent afterword in the print edition, Sherman Edwards, a popular songwriter and amateur historian, bemoans that fact that our educational system provides only a sketchy, one-dimensional accounting of that month in Philadelphia where our country and its founding philosophy were born. This play, and its filmed version, should be required reading/viewing. Written during the 60s, it mirrors its Vietnam era politics and is still relevant today. Edwards and Stone are as historical accurate as the dictates of drama allow. Whenever I'm in Philadelphia, I think of those men, the cool considerate conservatives, the heroic Caesar Rodney, the mercurial Benjamin Franklin, and, especially, the obnoxious John Adams. Men I know from Edwards and Stone.
December 19, 2021
This is a good story about the writing of the Declaration of Independence, even though it is a bit off in the real history, such as the Continental Congress always met in secret, the Caesar Rodney role is not quite true to the actual events, and the South's role is a bit off. Nevertheless, it follows the events well enough to remind the reader to re-read the Declaration and remember why it is important to stay true to the United States Constitution.
I could have done without the singing and dancing, and Martha Jefferson did not need to be in the story. That was weird.
💥 Recommended.
I could have done without the singing and dancing, and Martha Jefferson did not need to be in the story. That was weird.
💥 Recommended.
October 1, 2008
Wonderful play about the birth of the American republic. It is entertaining, and it is good history.
There is treasure to be found in the back of the book. The authors have included a copy of the Declaration of Independence with the edits performed on it by the Continental Congress. The Historical Note in the book's last pages contains valuable information about the Revolutionary period and about some of our founding fathers.
There is treasure to be found in the back of the book. The authors have included a copy of the Declaration of Independence with the edits performed on it by the Continental Congress. The Historical Note in the book's last pages contains valuable information about the Revolutionary period and about some of our founding fathers.
May 1, 2011
I am a musical theater buff. I also have a distinct interest in this period. Although this is not exactly historically accurate,it's the first experience I've had with the founding fathers as real people and not icons. I think this is what sparked my interest in history. It really is inspiring to know these people were basically just folks living their lives with very similar day to day thoughts and things like all of us.
August 3, 2016
Wonderful musical comedy of the late 1960s with a hard edge of truth and significant research behind it. I watched the film many years ago and it has stayed with me. You will learn more about the Declaration of Independence here than in most college textbooks. The love story between Abigail and John Adams is breathtaking.
July 28, 2015
The text version of the play based on the signing of the Declaration of Independence. If you have not seen this play, you should. The movie version is very good, too. It is based on the actual events surrounding the signing, and is a fun way to introduce American's of all ages to the truth about the founding of our country, and the reading of drama.
October 23, 2016
1776 is one of my favorite movies, and I've seen and love the play as well (the "Hamilton" of its day). I picked up the book years ago and finally got around to reading it. I didn't realize just how well I know the movie; whenever the written play deviated from the movie I noticed it. (Mostly minor stuff.) Thoroughly enjoyable - if you haven't see the movie, go watch it!
July 29, 2011
Absolutely wonderful! Brings the story of the Declaration of Independence alive and makes the historical figures into very real personalities. Reading it is great by itself, but everyone should grab a chance to see it staged or the movie.
May 27, 2012
I love teaching this musical to my juniors. The story teaches the pure differences between a liberal and conservative. I bring out the music and sing my heart away as if I was one of the last 2 contestants on American Idol. Love that!
July 17, 2014
As a lover of history and as a lover of musicals, I am a lover of this play. It's funny, witty, and somehow manages to make historical fact tense and suspenseful. Plus, there's nothing so fun as the founding fathers snarking at each other and making bawdy jokes.
July 4, 2013
A wonderfully literate and witty book for a rather unlikely musical.
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