LINCOLNSHIRE, Ill.—It was 1776. It was a bright summer day in Philadelphia when a group of radicals gathered to rebel against Britain. These men who disassociated themselves from the island nation were considered traitors to the crown. They could lose their fortunes, families, or lives for what they were about to do. In those fateful days, passionate men were birthing something new, something extraordinary, something the world had never known before: America.
By signing the Declaration of Independence, they birthed a nation of free men. It was such a momentous occasion that Peter Stone and composer Sherman Edwards wrote “1776,” a musical celebrating the American patriots and the cataclysmic event that they started. The show, which opened in 1969, won three Tony Awards. An exuberant but historically inaccurate version is now playing at the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire, Illinois.
