1776: A Musical Play

1776: A Musical Play by Peter Stone. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780739401446.

Hardcover edition of the script for the musical play, "1776." Includes black and white photographs. "1776" is an inspiring and imaginative re-creation of the momentous days from May 8 to July 4 in Philadelphia when the second Continental Congress argued about, voted on, and signed the Declaration of Independence. It is a drama of mounting tension and triumph--from John Adams opening diatribe to the stunning coup de theatre at the end as the delegates file by to sign and the Liberty Bell booms in the background. The individual characters of the delegates are drawn strictly from what they and their contemporaries told us. Through the authors skillful presentations, the reader begins to know these famous men, their seemingly irreconcilable differences, their humor--both lusty and refined--and their courage and fears. We see the fiery and tenacious John Adams clash with the conservative John Dickinson of Pennsylvania and the sinuous Edward Rutledge of South Carolina. The hot-blooded newlywed Thomas Jefferson and the ever-urbane Benjamin Franklin, along with many others, take on a human dimension unattainable in a history book alone. The songs, too, richly add to the emotional depth and dramatic turning points of the play. Their lyrics range from the humorous, as when Martha Jefferson salutes her husbands ardor, to the scathing, as Edward Rutledge denounces the hypocrisy of New Englanders grown rich on Blackbirding while protesting slavery, and the sheer poignance of the ballad "Momma Look Sharp" about a very young man dying on the village green.