Posted: 7/6/26 at 1:56pm
Reel History: '1776' Is Way More Radical Than You Think! History Prof Jared Frederick Reacts!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAHEUe7UVxs
Posted: 7/6/26 at 2:08pm
If 1776 were created today, it would be denounced as woke and unpatriotic. This is a musical about America's founding that spends its last third grappling with slavery and implicating all the founders in it, while also contrasting the well-heeled, bickering, often unlikable Congress with the war being fought at their behest. The ultimate final image of the signing of the Declaration is momentous, but not necessarily triumphant.
1776 often gets unfairly contrasted with the musical it beat for the Tony, the more openly radical and critical Hair. But i think it's a rather remarkable in how it handles its subject matter.
Posted: 7/6/26 at 2:20pm
There have been so many bad community theatre and high school productions of 1776 that slow it down and play it seriously that people have started to think that's what the show is supposed to be. It's not. 1776 is an extremely satirical look at our government that was written as a protest piece during Vietnam. It is not meant to be taken at face value. Not to mention, the original production was 2 hrs 20 mins with no intermission (not the 3-hour funeral dirge that it's become). That should tell you a lot about the pacing and the tone in which it's meant to be played.
Updated On: 7/6/26 at 02:20 PM
Posted: 7/6/26 at 2:21pm
I don't at all agree it would be considered unpatriotic or woke, especially since live theater and its audience base seems to be among the most progressive branches of the arts. I guess if the movie were just being released today, Fox News would try to drum up some sort of outrage.
I think the show is fairly conservative, very Old Broadway, but of course with the proliferation of right wing media, and the internet obsession with outrage, the material could look leftist to a certain segement of the populace. But who would have ever guessed we'd live in a world where acknowledging the human abuse that was slavery or that war leaves men dead is a "woke" sentiment?
Updated On: 7/6/26 at 02:21 PM
Posted: 7/6/26 at 4:27pm
The Mark Hoebee production at Papermill is the definitive production. Absolute perfection, the design, big orchestra, classically sung, and amazing performance by Will Blum and the entire ensemble. It was magnificent, and very funny
Updated On: 7/6/26 at 04:27 PM
Posted: 7/6/26 at 6:43pm
My High School did a production of it in 1976 for the Bicentennial. I played Josiah Bartlett. That I remember, we didn't play it as a drama. Had a blast doing it.
Posted: 7/6/26 at 7:55pm
The first time I did the show I played Sherman. The second time, Adams. The show is historical fiction, but in answer to your question re: "too many liberties", I think there are just enough liberties taken to retain the essence of the men and events, yet embellish/fictionalize enough to still tell a compelling story. I look for 100% historical authenticity from Ken Burns.
I think that Dickinson suffers the most (as Jared Frederick points out) from dramatic license. I'm also happy to hear Frederick point up how much of Edwards' and Stone's work is drawn directly from letters and historical documents, like in the case of my favorite moment in the show, "Is Anybody There?".
Here are the final paragraphs from John Adams' letter to Abigail dated July 3, 1776:
"I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.
You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. -- I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. -- Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not."
and:
"I answered that the die was now cast; I had passed the Rubicon. Swim or sink, live or die, survive or perish with my country was my unalterable determination."
-John Adams, describing a conversation with Jonathan Sewall in 1774.
PS: I think he was restricting his thoughts to the movie, but I liked Frederick's suggestion of including a Black actor in the "Molasses to Rum" scene.
I didn't agree, though that without "1776", there would be no "Hamilton". That would imply that LMM would never have read Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton, nor been inspired by its connection to the history of immigrants or hip-hop.
Updated On: 7/6/26 at 07:55 PM
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