John Adams is angry throughout “1776” — and not just about the oppressive heat afflicting Philadelphia both 250 years ago and again in the summer of 2026.
When his colleagues worry about what England will think of talk of independence, he bellows, “This is a revolution, dammit! We’re going to have to offend somebody!”
He enumerates the many tariffs British King George III levied against the American colonies, each a greater imposition and indignity than the last.
“For ten years, King George and his Parliament have gulled, cullied and diddled these colonies with their illegal taxes," Adams says. "Stamp Acts. Townshend Acts. Sugar Acts. Tea Acts.”
And he considers Congress (a body of which he is a key part) a plague on par with a biblical locust storm. Indeed, it's this fervor of a forever-irked politician drives the plot of the musical, on view through the July 4 weekend at the Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre (a financial supporter of KBIA).
Bill English, who plays Adams in the Lyceum Theatre production of the show, said there are many themes that appear prescient in the modern political landscape, making it important people know the play's historical underpinnings.
“I feel like we need more people that, first of all, know the history – know where we came from – so that we can understand the place that we’re in now," English said.
"1776" was written in the late 1960s and was popular around the nation’s bicentennial a half-century ago. This year it’s been staged in several spots important to American history, including Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. and in Springfield, Illinois, among others.
“I think it’s kind of the perfect time in our country to be doing the play," said Lyceum Theatre Artistic Director Robyne Parrish, who also plays the roles of Abigail Adams and Georgia delegate Dr. Lyman Hall in the show. “Because clearly this is a bunch of people from a bunch of different places and all walks of life who are coming together and disagreeing without killing each other, so that’s always good when that happens.”
“You can draw a fairly straight line between the arguments of whether or not we should engage in literal human rights abuses as our nation was being founded into how can we craft the egalitarian society that we are at least purporting to be today," said Timothy Jones, who plays South Carolina delegate Edward Rutledge, a fierce defender of slavery battling Adams over issues of citizenship and human rights.
Though the play is not strictly historically accurate, it does touch on the notion of how the delegates would – or should - be remembered. Alan Knoll as Ben Franklin tries to calm Adams' worries that they and their colleagues will be poorly remembered if slavery is not abolished in the fledgling nation.
“That’s probably true," Franklin says. "But we won’t hear a thing, John, we’ll be long gone. And besides, what will posterity think we were, demigods?”
The quote is a wink and a nod to a notion used by conservative Supreme Court justices from the late Antonin Scalia to current Justice Clarence Thomas. Under the heading of “originalism” – essentially trying to make modern rulings by guessing what the Founding Fathers might have done - modern jurisprudence consistently relies on the words of those responsible for the beginnings of the U.S.
“I just think it’s kind of ironic that [Franklin] says it like that," Knoll said. "Because I think we do [revere them], I mean their pictures are everywhere. I mean they’re honored – I don’t think even [Franklin] is thinking that.”
The play's messages about class struggle also parallel some current debates. It features few characters who are not white men — the only group of people able to own property at the nation's founding. Devin McCall, who plays Martha Jefferson (cast in the show as an indispensable muse to her Declaration-writing husband), said though female characters are few, the ones who do appear are important.
“I’m sure that’s still happening today. I think women are not necessarily in the room as much as they should be, so I think that’s still probably being echoed unfortunately," McCall said. "But I do think that even though our roles are a little smaller in this play, we’re still just as important and mighty.”
Jonathan Hadley plays Pennsylvania delegate John Dickinson, one of America's richest men and a devout believer the colonies should remain British.
“I have a line where I say, 'Don't forget that most men with nothing would rather protect the possibility of being rich than face the reality of being poor.' I think that is universal in a way, and shows the way that a lot of people choose to vote and who they choose to vote for," Hadley said.
And even as Hadley was playing the character, news emerged of previously undiscovered letters Dickinson had written trying to keep the peace between the colonies and their colonizers.
“Apparently he was trying to broker a deal with somebody in England to try to avert the Revolutionary War,” Hadley said.
Dickinson didn’t stop the war – in fact, he went to fight for the colonies against Britain after losing his debate with Adams - an act of patriotism born from a stinging rhetorical loss that Dickinson felt, but didn’t take personally. It’s the sort of lesson that rings from 1776 to now, just as Adams' opening line in the play mirrors modern polls:
“I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a disgrace. That two are called a law firm. And that three or more become a Congress.”
