Editing 1776 (musical) (section)

== History ==
In 1925, [[Rodgers and Hart]] wrote a Broadway musical about the American Revolution called ''[[Dearest Enemy]]''.<ref name=Green>[[Stanley Green (historian)|Green, Stanley]].  "[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZWIRAljCR7oC&pg=PA232 ''Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre''] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140627103243/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZWIRAljCR7oC&pg=PA232 |date=June 27, 2014 }}, pp. 373–74.  Jefferson, N.C.:  Da Capo Press, 1980.  {{ISBN|0-306-80113-2}}</ref> In 1950, another musical about the Revolution was presented on Broadway, titled [[Arms and the Girl (musical)|''Arms and the Girl'']], with music by Morton Gould, lyrics by Dorothy Fields, and book by Herbert Fields, Dorothy Fields and Rouben Mamoulian, the show's director.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.playbill.com/production/arms-and-the-girl-46th-street-theatre-vault-0000003123|title=Arms and the Girl (Broadway, Richard Rodgers Theatre, 1950)|website=Playbill|access-date=June 26, 2022}}</ref>

[[Sherman Edwards]], a writer of pop songs with several top 10 hits in the late 1950s and early '60s, spent several years developing lyrics and libretto for a musical based on the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Edwards recounted that "I wanted to show [the founding fathers] at their outermost limits. These men were the cream of their colonies. ... They disagreed and fought with each other. But they understood commitment, and though they fought, they fought affirmatively."<ref name=KantorA>Kantor and Maslon, pp. 328-49</ref>  Producer [[Stuart Ostrow]] recommended that librettist Peter Stone collaborate with Edwards on the book of the musical.  Stone recalled, <blockquote>The minute you heard ["Sit Down, John"], you knew what the whole show was. ... You knew immediately that [[John Adams]] and the others were not going to be treated as gods or cardboard characters, chopping down cherry trees and flying kites with strings and keys on them. It had this very affectionate familiarity; it wasn't reverential.<ref name=KantorA /></blockquote> Adams, the outspoken delegate from Massachusetts, was chosen as the central character, and his quest to persuade all 13 colonies to vote for independence became the central conflict. Stone confined nearly all of the action to [[Independence Hall]] and the debate among the delegates, and featuring two female characters, [[Abigail Adams]] and [[Martha Jefferson]], in the musical.<ref name=KantorB>Kantor and Maslon, pp. 329</ref><ref name=Bloom>Bloom and Vlastnik, pp. 285</ref> After tryouts in New Haven, Conn., and Washington, D.C., the show opened on Broadway at the [[46th Street Theatre]] on March 16, 1969. [[Peter H. Hunt|Peter Hunt]] directed.