WISH-LIST WEDNESDAY: 1776

Artwork for the original 1969 broadway production

This week we're exploring a musical about the USA founding fathers...nope, not that one, the other one that predates Lin-Manuel Miranda's magnum opus by 46 years, in a musical theatre landscape very much in transition, from the powerful orchestral scores of Rodgers & Hammerstein, to the more pop and rock inspired shows such as "Hair", "The Wiz" and "Ain't Misbehavin'". Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone's best known work "1776" takes inspiration from American patriotic music and close harmonies, for a show that very much falls in a halfway house between eras.

It premiered on broadway in 1969, interestingly also in what is now the Richard Rodgers Theatre (current home of similarly themed musical "Hamilton"), however contrary to its successor had a far more modest innings, and in spite of winning three Tony awards from six nominations, including winning best musical at the expense of the more commercially successful production "Hair", it only ran for just short of three years, moving venues twice in that time, to the Majestic and St James theatres respectively.

The 2022 broadway revival cast

Although the show has been successfully revived on broadway several times, including in 2022 with an ethnically diverse all female and non-binary cast, the only London run the show has experienced was in 1970, when it transferred to the New Theatre (now the Gillian Lynne) following its wins at the previous year's Tony awards. Unlike its relatively successful run on broadway, the show failed to resonate with British audiences, and it closed after just 4 months and 177 total performances. That however was 55 years ago, and since its modern day successor has been such a roaring success over here, there's no reason to believe a revival of its own "founding father" wouldn't be well received by British audiences...

Have you seen 1776? What did you think? Let me know below or on my instagram page.