1776 on Broadway Tickets

By: Peter Stone
Songs by: Sherman Edwards
Director: Diane Paulus and Jeffrey L. Page
Choreography: Raja Feather Kelly
Producer: Roundabout Theatre Company in association with the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University
Cast list: Crystal Lucas-Perry (as John Adams), Gisela Adisa (as Robert Livingston), Nancy Anderson (as George Read), Becca Ayers (as Col. Thomas McKean), Tiffani Barbour (as Andrew McNair), Carolee Carmello (as John Dickinson), Allyson Kaye Daniel (as Abigail Adams/Rev. Jonathan Witherspoon), Elizabeth A. Davis (as Thomas Jefferson), Mehry Eslaminia (as Charles Thomson), Joanna Glushak (as Stephen Hopkins), Shawna Hamic (as Richard Henry Lee), Eryn LeCroy (as Martha Jefferson/Dr. Lyman Hall), Liz Mikel (as John Hancock), Patrena Murray (as Benjamin Franklin), Oneika Phillips (as Joseph Hewes), Lulu Picart (as Samuel Chase), Sara Porkalob (as Edward Rutledge), Sushma Saha (as Judge James Wilson), Brooke Simpson (as Roger Sherman), Salome B. Smith (as Courier), Sav Souza (as Dr. Josiah Bartlett) Jill Vallery (as Caesar Rodney)
Design: Scott Pask
Costumes: Emilio Sosa
Lighting: Jen Schriever
Sound: Jonathan Deans
Other info: Projection design by David Bengali, hair and wig design by Mia Neal

A revolutionary new 1776 is opening on Broadway this September. Get 1776 tickets on TodayTix.

1776 is a musical about the events leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence — and it was a much rockier process than you might think. The show centers on John Adams, who first pushed for the idea of American independence. The problem was, a lot of people didn't like Adams very much and didn't want to hear his ideas.

So he thinks of someone else to propose the idea for him. He chats with other decision-makers. He has the idea to make independence look grand and official by writing it down... in, say, a formal declaration. The show takes audiences inside those historical closed-door meetings from centuries ago, showing all the inner conflicts, alliances, and twists and turns that eventually gave way to the creation of one of the most important documents in history.

The 1776 musical hasn't been around quite as long as that Declaration, but it has been around for over 50 years. The premiere of 1776 on Broadway was in 1969, and although the reviews weren't all raves, 1776 became an awards darling. The show won three Tony Awards, including Best Musical; two Drama Desk Awards, and a Theatre World Award.

The show has remained in the cultural lexicon since, receiving a 1972 film adaptation, a 1997 Broadway revival, and a 2016 limited revival at New York City Center through its Encores! series for seldom-revived musicals. And now that history musicals are having a moment, with the smashing success of Hamilton on Broadway and the buzzy premiere of Suffs off Broadway, it seems like there's no better time for 1776, a trailblazer for these contemporary shows, to play alongside them.

1776 tickets can be yours, yours, yours with just a couple clicks. Get tickets to 1776 in New York on TodayTix now.

What to Watch For

• 1776 mostly consists of male characters, but this revival is turning that on its head. Though all but two characters (Abigail Adams and Martha Jefferson) are still male historical figures, all the actors in the 2022 production are female, non-binary, and transgender.
• This 1776 production shares multiple commonalities with the smash hit Hamilton. Both shows are set around the time of the American Revolution and take a non-historically accurate approach to casting to reflect the demographics of today's America. They share the character of Thomas Jefferson, and the Hamilton song "The Adams Administration" includes the lyric "sit down, John," a reference to the 1776 opening number of that name.
• History repeats itself! Roundabout Theatre Company produced the musical's last Broadway revival in 1997 and is now producing the 2022 one.
• 1776 holds the record for the musical with the longest break between musical numbers. There's more than a half hour of dialogue between the songs "The Lees of Old Virginia" and "But Mr. Adams."
• Diane Paulus is co-directing 1776 with Jeffrey L. Page. You might know Paulus as the director of recent Broadway hits like Waitress (the first Broadway musical with an all-female creative team) and Jagged Little Pill. And Page is a director/choreographer/actor who's performed in Fela! on Broadway and choreographed Violet, starring Sutton Foster.